Solid but not groundbreaking.

Rating: 6/10 (15 January 2020)

I was lucky to attend a preview screening of this for almost nothing. War movies are never my first choice. They either seem to be glorified body counts using high tech killing machines or preachy "isn't war just terrible and we should all be ashamed" movies. This one is in the latter camp. This is a saving private Ryan style narrative minus the pyrotechnics of the opening scene. Two soldiers are selected to pass a message to a commander to halt and advance into a planned trap. The movie itself is basically about their journey and the overall emotion it conveys is one of tension. The problem I had with the movie is that the soldiers are basically inept. Every problem that they face is basically self inflicted and the result of bad decision making. Which makes it a little hard to be sympathetic. This is really a story about dumb luck and who does or doesn't have it.
It's well shot however it has less visual impact than the recent Peter Jackson effort which used real moving film. Which brings me to my next point. The tone of 1917 is very sombre while as the Peter Jackson documentary showed that wasn't always the case. For some reason its forbidden to show anyone smiling over anything in world war 1. This will earn high praise from the anti war middle-class that's lovely cinematography crowd. But many will be disappointed when the movie doesn't match the initial high scores of professional critics. Midway was a much more entertaining and emotionally engaging war movie.