From our friends at Screen Rant:
Along with Black Hawk Down, there are scenes reminiscent of District 9, Aliens and I’m sure you could pick out a few other films as well. And I’m here to tell you, if you HATE shaky cam – this is NOT the film for you. It is used to excess here right from the start. A very basic scene that took place in an office with Nantz talking to another officer had so much camera movement that I thought maybe the cameraman had some sort of muscular control problem. Compounding this is the constant use of EXTREME facial close-ups, which made me wish I had sat a few rows further back.
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Where the film excels is during the battle sequences that are quite intense and really put you in the thick of things. Where it does not, is when it tries to convey the (seemingly obligatory) little personal moments between characters. It’s very clumsy and oh so clichéd almost every time – except for one scene in the third act where I would say the skills of Eckhart carry the simple but effective dialog and a scene between him and another marine actually packs an emotional punch.
While there are some weak performances, Aaron Eckhart does an admirable job as does Michelle Rodriguez for the short amount of time she has on the screen. A couple of the supporting characters drew me in as well, despite not having much time to do so with so many actors vying for camera time.
Another thing that I found quite gratifying (and I may get arguments on this, although I don’t know why) is the portrayal of the U.S. military in particular and America in general. It harkens back to old war movies – you know, the ones where the soldiers were actually portrayed as heroes instead of villains or mentally damaged people. There were a couple of battle scenes were I’m not embarrassed to say that I felt a rush of pride at seeing the actions of the characters on the screen in battle and in the protection of civilians.
Read the full review here.
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