In formal review of American sniper: sure, its a good movie. But its just a good movie. Its standard, by the numbers, average and overall underwhelming, and its disappointing considering that it doesnt have to be any of those, but it is. Its a biopic about this sniper dude, going from a-z cherry picking the highlights of his time in the army etc, but it does it In such a matter of fact way that its like Im reading a text book rather than being told a story or even being shown a character study of this guy. Basically after finishing that film, I know that his name is Chris Kyle, that hes an awesome sniper and....that hes an awesome sniper. Glad you told me that again clint cos I almost forgot that. If its a biopic, it doesnt really teach us anything about this dude that we didnt already figure out from the title. And if we are supposed to get invested in a powerful story, then any powerful message it had was made in the first 20 minutes and it keeps hammering that same point with zero development of it for the next 2 hours. And the point (if any) that it is trying to make, the hurt locker was able to make more effectively in 2 scenes, and didnt need an entire film to make it. You just kind of leave the theatre thinking: okay. That dude was American. And he was a sniper. Okay Also, while it is a slight return to form in terms of direction for clint Eastwood, the direction is still very uninspired and bland. And thank god he is avoiding that fugly colour grade hes used in the last 5 films hes done, but you can tell that he so badly wants to, and Im like, no clint! Stop! Youre doing so well! On top of that, kind of extension of lack of investment beyond being told facts, I kind of found it problematic that any time I was covering my eyes or on the edge of my seat was when the violence became horrific (and it gets pretty horrific). I was jumping and covering my eyes from violence on screen, and not cos of any investment or intensity of stakes. Granted, it does tell its facts very matter of fact and does avoid any kind of pro/anti war propaganda slant which is nice. (Maybe why it has been compared to the hurt locker) And the scenes in which action takes place are brilliantly well done. And Bradley cooper is great. And it is still a movie that Im glad got made, glad I saw, and glad is doing well, cos its an interesting film about an interesting subject. But unless they wanted to take greater effort than just have disjointed fact checking scenes, it shoulda been a documentary I appreciate the effort, but it could have been more with the amount of effort put in (But.... They skimped on the baby budget. What clint? You couldnt afford a real baby? Had to use an obvious as hell prop baby for the wife? Really? Theres like a thousand parents willing to lend their babies for movies) So, a fine movie, glad is doing well, glad it got made. But its just a fine movie. Not earth shattering, which usually isnt a problem, but in this case it is, cos it couldve been, and Invites itself to be more than it settles for.
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 12:57:05 +0000
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