The latest releases that can I think off the top of my head are War Horse and Defiance. So I am not sure if this is a treat or something that will not conjure up any surprises.
Before going into the screening, I was quite excited after the decent buzz it got from the London festival, and from war veterans. I also enjoyed the tense trailer and that Brad Pitt was the leading the way and his back catalog in performances and film choices is pretty consistent.
I was amazed at the attention to detail director David Ayers gave to this film. For example, he used actual tanks from World War II, borrowed them from the museum and did some heavy research into the behavior of the soldiers back then which I think is the perfect homage for our war veterans which seems to have won them over.
It is beautifully shot and the tank-on-tank action is quite impressive and should be seen on the big screen. However, as for the script that is where the film slowly moves down to a good rather than great film. There were some great moments, but not enough to credit the script. It just felt a bit too basic and did not give enough depth. Another negative was that it was too long. There is one scene I can see a lot of people losing patience and I think that part could have easily been cut out. Once that is done, you then have a nice duration for a film like this.
As for the performances, they were vital in this film and thankfully they all played their part to make this film a great watch. Brad Pitt's character was powerful, intriguing and very inspirational. Logan Lerman play his character to how it should be and shone brighter the longer the film went. One performance that deserves a mention is Shia LeBouf. After being heavily criticised for years in the Transformers franchise, I think LeBouf delivered and will get the praise that he rightfully deserves.
I think that it should have been better, but I still enjoyed it. The main reason for it not meeting my expectations was the lack of depth I felt it had. Also the pace of the film seem to stall far too many times.
But thankfully, the surface was great, the set-pieces were gripping and the action would easily match the best ever in the war genre. The performances were great, they held the movie together to make enjoyable viewing and you can easily engage with them. You can see the hard work put into this film which I think a lot will respect, but I did not think it was enough to be considered as one of this years greats. I would still recommend it though.
Rating: 7/10
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