Good film with too many flaws

Rating: 6/10 (2 February 2020)

I enjoyed it and I feel like it had it's heart in the right place but there were too many things that just didn't work.
Pros

Their heart was in the right place and they showed a touching story with a good message.

They experimented with style (one-shot technique) which hopefully brought more people in to see it.

The acting was quite good.

It was quite entertaining.

Cons

The one-shot technique did not work for me. It felt more like a lets-play of a video game (like Oblivion or Skyrim). There was even a 'game over scene' so to speak and a starting a new level scene. The characters you encounter often felt like NPC with awkward one liners that you just walk away from once their dialogue is done.

The characters made too many mistakes that they didn't learn from. They looked like completely green soldiers who kept forgetting that they were in a war and fighting the Germans, as they kept trying to save them! And each time they were shocked that the germans actually wantes to kill them in return...

Much like in a game, the germans were completely one dimensional killing machines. Even when being saved their only response was to kill. It felt awkward and unnatural. In real life there might have been more back and forth and more morally grey areas.

The main character completed his journey only because he was lucky (and not because of any smart decisions or skill, of which he had none). I highly doubt that the person he is based off was this reckless and stupid.

There are too many coincidences: the rat, the plane, the cow, finding the right people at the right time etc. Again it's too much like a video game where you know it will work out and where events happen because you are the main character.

Weird plot holes where his important letter and photographs are completely fine even though he spent a long time submerged in water... And where he drinks milk from a dirty bucket that has been there for god knows how long and then offers it to a baby...

A missed opportunity to show that this was indeed a 'world' war and was actually quite international with different battalions from different countries. Instead they just did diversity box ticking that made no sense historically.

I am glad this film exists and it is a better war film than many, however, for me, the flaws are too great to give it a higher score. It would have made a better video game than a film in my opinion.