Not really sure if I like this movie, or hate it for that matter.

Rating: 5/10 (23 January 2015)

Eastwood is back! One of the best directors in Hollywood. As soon as this movie was announced I added it to my watch list without knowing the plot or anything. Several years later, I saw that an actor I had been following for a very long time (Kyle Gallner) was going to be in it which made me more excited for it. I still didn't know the plot though. Time went by, and suddenly it came out. It got zero nominations at the golden globes so I thought it was just another bad Eastwood movie, but a week later it was announced that it had been nominated for 6 academy awards. Now I had to go see it.
American Sniper is as you may hear on the title a war film. The story focuses on a man named Chris Kyle, who decides to join the navy in his thirties. He becomes a sniper for SEAL and is sent to Iraq. If you've been on the internet the latest days, you've probably noticed that this film has lead to a lot of debate on the internet. That's not surprising in my opinion. It's really hard to make movies about wars these days. There will always be people who only wants to know if the movie is patriotic or not. However, unlike many user reviews I will not be focusing on my actual opinion about the Iraq war.
There are both good and bad things about American Sniper. First off, I must say that Bradley Cooper is very well casted as Chris Kyle. He actually fit pretty perfect for the role. The movie wasn't only about war. It focused a lot on homecoming, how it is for Chris to return home to his family from the Iraq war. This is portrayed very well in the film. I think Clint Eastwood should have focused more on that part instead of the war.
The scenes in Iraq were often too long and sometimes kind of meaningless to the story overall. I'm not sure if the point is to feel like a patriot or an anti-American when you watch those scenes. I experienced both things, although the movie of course had to be a little patriotic at some parts. But that's what military is about. If you want to protect your country, you have to be a patriot (as they say in the film).
American Sniper also had a few touching moments. But most of the time they were basically introduced and then forgotten for the rest of the movie. I probably like this film though, but I'm still not sure. Of course I don't want to see a movie that's patriotic throughout, but if you compare this to Zero Dark Thirty and similar movies I didn't really feel there was too much off it.
Clint Eastwood has directed a pretty unpleasant experience, that is both good and bad. It's definitely worth checking out. I'm however a bit surprised it received so many Oscar nominations.
However, I really dislike how this movie is advertised. It is basically marketed as a teen war thriller with Robert Patinson in the main role. That's why the audience I watched this movie with, was pretty annoying. I guess half of them didn't even know what the Iraq war actually was (teens in Europe don't really know about it too well).