Visual Candy, But...

Rating: 7/10 (24 February 2020)

I have to say, this movie was such a treat to watch. I could only imagine the effort that was put into the camerawork to keep the movie's one-shot feel must be paramount. The one-shot method definitely made a lot of sense for this movie. It really keeps us close to heart with our protagonist and lets the audience experience the horror of war. I can see that this could be a powerful tool in different occasions. Honestly, it felt like a video game at times. It was really cool.
But unfortunately while this movie had finesse on the screen, it did lack in its writing department. My main complaint is with how they handled the protagonist and his partner. I really believed that the protagonist's partner had a lot in him that the audience could have learned about, but sadly was never delved into. Meanwhile, our protagonist really did not have anything in particular that made him interesting. Not that he needs a lot of flair, but the lack thereof, kind of hindered the movie's potential. There was room for character growth that would have made the protagonist interesting. But that growth was approached so quickly, that it really didn't had any impact whatsoever. This is why I think the potential of an intimate character growth from the one-shot method was wasted. Also, the ending was kind of lame, albeit was tense.