And the Sympathy Award for Good Effort Goes To...

Rating: 4/10 (9 January 2020)

This movie is being shilled by the studio and producers. Any negative review is being brigaded. I liked American Beauty, but Mendes looks like the bully-type and they are probably sensitive since they have high profit-hopes for this to rebound after the GG. A 100 million dollar budget and the film only grossed about 2.5 million in the US..
Questions:
The camera work is awesome, but be warned this is not a great war movie. It's an average war movie with major flaws. The entire scenario isn't even sensical or plausible; like other people have said- if it was so important, why not fly a plane to reach them? Why weren't these two somewhat inexperienced soldiers protected and accompanied by at least a few more soldiers if it was so important? Why were the two soldiers so clean-cut and clean-shaven that they looked like female primadonnas in the middle of WWI? Why would they dumbly and naively try to save an enemy pilot without caution to the point one of them is stabbed (were they not trained properly in boot camp and the military?). Why are they so alone and isolated on the farm, but just so conveniently suddenly after the one of them dies, another battalion happens to show up immediately at that moment (for one-take, one-shot continuity, of course)? Why is the commander of the big battle so easy to reach by an unknown subordinate who hasn't proven to be trustworthy? Why is the soldier who prevails beyond the pilot saving scene so impervious to bullets and gunfire- is he Rambo or Commando? (He doesn't look like it). Why does it happen that the one little room he hides out in in the middle of such a horrific war has this perfectly made up young female with a baby in it (Oh and slap yourself in the head that you didn't think of it- yes, the milk he got from the farm is just so perfectly arranged to be used here; could you be manipulated for sentimentalism any more?). Why did the soldier who was chasing him just decide to give up when he jumped in the river? Why in the final scene are bombs landing all around him as he foolishly runs above the bunker, but he doesn't get a scratch on him? Why didn't the brother look anything like the other one, and why when he was told to look at the casualty area was the other brother perfectly unscathed?
Again, the camera work is outstanding, acting suffices, but some of the scenes and writing is downright implausible and almost funny. Was there a GG sympathy award handed to this to help it at the box office or with viewership by giving it recognition or something? It's a decent movie, but other than cinematography, it's not award-worthy on that high of a level.