Nice visuals but thats just it.

Rating: 6/10 (28 January 2020)

It really disappoints me this movie had nothing beyond fantastic cinematography, some decent acting and some great visuals.
The movie lacks story, it lacks depth, it lacks emotional investment in the characters, and it failed at keeping my attention throughout.
Now let's get this out of the way I'm not some guy who needs an action scene ever 5 minutes, good dialog would be enough for me but the writing barely even there.
So far it seems like 99% of the reviews are about the cinematography and ''1 take'' filming style.
This movie ultimately failed to make the audience care for the characters they had in front of them. It failed to show the absolute horror of world war 1. It failed to show the grime and dirt, the desperation in the men, of fighting this war of attrition.
This is going to be a bit of rant review, because I was intensely excited for a WW1 movie, and general reviews (I didn't really want to spoil myself with more in depth stuff) were very positive.
First of the grit, it seems like they didn't want to show the true horror of this war except through either some dead bodies or injured people in the medical bay. The full last ''action'' scene in particular was something that almost felt PG rated. I'm not asking to see legs flying everywhere, but gore is a part of war, especially the first one. And it missed the mark, why I take the biggest offense from because WW1 was ****** horrific. One of the worst wars in history.
But that aside, the characters, William, a soldier that a care about why? They added a little personality to his mate that died, and that was a emotional and unexpected scene for sure. But then we just travel around with this empty shell of a human being. Which I guess, his journey was wanting to die in the war but after telling that brother and seeing his mate die, he realized he didn't want to. But It felt so unsatisfying.
With the other people I went with we all agreed we didn't care for the character at all. We just weren't invested in what'll happen to him. And to be honest, I really was expecting him to die, to make fulfill that empty feeling and show the true side of war, but it ended with a happy ending..I guess.
Another thing, those germans must be really stupid. A british soldier avoiding multipule german encampments, being spotted by flares. With that flare scene just being a ''cool visuals'' scene in the end. They never chased him down, we barely even saw them for that matter. Seemed like no one really cared for this one enemy soldier, even though everytime we meet a german they want to skin these guys alive seemingly.
This leads to the scene with the woman and the baby, he gives food, and leaves, but again.. character development? What was the point of that scene?
And wow, just the final scene once he delivers the orders, first he was told to get out, but being persistent he reads them, and okay.. call the men back. That's it? That's what I watched this journey for? No view of the germany's response or from the brits?
Pfff.. I can go on, I'll leave it at this.
6/10 for cinematography and visuals. The rest is mediocre and I would not recommend friends to spend money on this movie.