American Sniper is an OK film but it seems to be getting more praise than it actually deserves

Rating: 5/10 (14 November 2015)

American Sniper chronicles the life of Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper) who grows up to become a Texan Cowboy. As a child he was taught by his father to become tough and never to back down from anything. In a bid to assist in the war against terrorists, Chris quits being a cowboy and decides to join the Navy SEALS. It is at this point that he meets his future wife Taya (Sienna Miller). However, the horrors of war soon begin to have a profound effect on both Chris and his family.
I'm going to start by saying that I don't know enough about the real Chris Kyle to determine how accurately this picture truly reflects what he is really like. Therefore I'll leave the historical accuracies/inaccuracies to those that are more in the know. Here's my personal take on the film....
The first thing I noticed about this film is that it suffers from a bit of a haphazard narrative (at least in the early stages). It seemed to jump very quickly from one aspect of Chris' life to another - him going from being a cowboy, to deciding to become a SEAL, to his marriage to Taya seemed to all come and go before you can even pause for breath. I'm almost certain there were gaps in here that could have been filled just to flesh out the story a little bit more.
Another problem with this film is that the story itself simply isn't as gripping as many other war films. Whilst the cut backs between the war and Chris' home life are clearly there to show how war has affected him, it did interrupt the flow of the film and sometimes made it feel a little bit drawn out. Many of the characters here were also a little flat and the camaraderie between the veterans was a bit hit and miss.
One thing I did quite like about it is that it did try to give some balance to Chris as a person; in Iraq he's dubbed a Hero and a Legend for his superb marksmanship (the flag-waving element with all of this is absolutely shameless). However, when he's back home the cracks start to appear and the effects of war highlight some flaws in his persona. On balance I'd say the glorification of Chris Kyle overpowered any attempts that were made to show any flaws in his character, but I appreciated that an attempt was at least made to show some cracks in his persona.
I remember all the hype surrounding Bradley Cooper and his acting performance being 'magnificent' in this film. Well all I can say is that he certainly wasn't bad here, but his performance here is hardly one that merits as much praise as it has done. Sienna Miller puts in a good turn as Chris' wife (I didn't actually realise it was her till I saw the end credits). All the technical aspects such as direction and cinematography were all above average.
American Sniper isn't a bad film, but in an already crowded field of war films it lacks the excitement and suspense of many previous efforts. The Hurt Locker is a film that focused on the Iraq War which I thought was much better than this film. For me, American Sniper was nothing special and at best it's an average war film/character piece that probably wouldn't have got anywhere near as much hype or attention if Eastwood's name hadn't been linked to it.