A missed opportunity.

Rating: 5/10 (10 January 2020)

If you want to use relative unknowns in your film, do not then litter some Hollywood heavy-hitters in bit parts through out the film. Be brave and go with a complete cast of "unknowns". Don't just throw in Benedict, Mark Storm and others as it serves no purpose other than to pull the audience from the film. Not that it's a problem here because, the film isn't exactly brilliant anyway... Stilted dialogue, some shoddy performances, lacklustre music and what we have here is nothing more than a technical masterpiece because, credit where it is due, it IS that.
The film looks as though it is shot in one take, which is great. It pulls you along with the soldiers charged with a mission and you see what they go through and the horrors that surround them but - after 20 minutes, we get it. We've seen it. The film is nothing more than a one trick pony. A disappointing one trick pony baiting the award season (fair enough I understand "Best Director" but "Best Picture"???) This film is NOT the Best Picture by a long shot. To call it that is an insult to the other films which have better messages, better stories and have already broken records with monies taken.
The biggest problem with this film is, you just do not care about anyone. Literally anyone. The two leads have little character about them and nothing to really endear you to them (hardly surprising given where they find themselves) so when they're in danger - who cares? The people they're going to try and deliver a message to? Again, we don't care. No one really shows compassion (again,, hardly surprising given the circumstances); everyone is aggressive, grumpy, miserable and so - why should we care about them?!
I regret this film.