Immersive war flick

Rating: 7/10 (16 January 2020)

If you are a war movie fan, this movie is an excellent addition to the genre with great production design, acting and realism. I truly enjoyed the environment it created by its visuals and soundtrack. If you like productions like Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers or Dunkirk, then you will be in for a treat. It is a type of movie you need to watch in the cinemas to really appreciate what it has to offer.
The primary goal for the main characters is a pretty straight forward war mission, but the true storytelling evolves around the journey to accomplish it. The realistic practical sets and CGI effects really worked well. The cinematography gave the audience a seemingly tour of environment of a typical war field as it pans strategically to bring attention to various moments and moods.
The continuous shot effect was quite a novelty and was probably a very huge technical feat and tedious to produce, especially to transitioning to various quality framing shots. I personally think making the movie this way as a constant theme was distracting as I start to try to spot the "breaks" and the continuous single shot motion made me feel lethargic. As a person who have seen and played a few 1st person and 3rd person shooter games, the novelty wore off pretty quickly. I would probably have still enjoyed this movie without it.
This movie is more of an experience and journey, rather than of an in depth storytelling of war strategy with intelligent scripts, so this movie is more of a ride than a lecture.
If you are not a war movie fan, it may get boring for you after awhile if you get over the great visual and sound effects quickly.