American Sniper ? More like ' Big budget shoot fest '

Rating: 6/10 (24 March 2015)

Well this movie put me into one hell of a roller coaster ride not because it was good at all times but because there were lots of downs in the plot , more than i had expected from a Clint Eastwood movie. First thing off the bat , this movie was shot with realism in mind , this by far is one the most realistic ground to earth biopic military cinema I have watched in a long time. The protagonist isn't hailed too much , he is put into the right stance , in the right situation with the right depth. The use of a steady camera for an action movie like this something that is really good looking at how action movie nowadays have evolved ( ahem end of watch ). What really pisses me off in this movie is the plot and character progression , and in this review i guess i would be pointing out more of the negatives than the positives because this movie has managed to leave a sour taste in my mouth.
1) Casting :- Perfect ! I cannot imagine anyone else who could get into the shoes of the most lethal sniper. He acted well with the script which was provided but felt a bit too dragged on and forced when it came to him acting with his co-star Elsie Robertson who are supposed to be in a relationship. The chemistry felt a bit too pushed and crammed according to me especially when the plot wants to force on the points of family problems in the lives of the seals and marines. Elsie Robertson did a good job too , portraying the life of a woman who lives every minute in a cloud of fear , of becoming a widow. Emotions are seen to hit throughout the charts but as stated previously the overall chemistry amongst them didn't catch out very well which is disappointing looking at how capable the cast and the crew are with their immense talents.
2) Direction :- It's Clint Eastwood , the movie is filled with his vibe and energy and his passion for direction is clearly seen here. Irrespective of his age , his hands and mind behind the camera still work brilliantly sever since Unforgiven. The camera shots between and during action scenes fit perfectly into the tense moments. But it is funny how the intense scene from the trailer was the first scene of the movie. As far as the action goes , Clint Nailed it. The sounds were top notch , every sniper with a silencer sounded like a silenced weapon every time Bradley scoped at his target there was a rush of Adrenaline. But in his path of making a realistic military movie Clint failed miserably at depicting the personal like of Kyle. Either he was concentrated on the war aspects or just too lazy , the core of the film was just left out which is a huge backlash.
3) Story ( Plot ) :- OK this is where everything in the movie falls apart. I am glad about the fact that Clint stayed true to the source material given to him , in fact the plot is pretty much linear and one dimensional. The story was crying of depth which the script writer Jason Hall just left out in the blue. Following are some of the problems that i faced while and after watching the movie
i) Plot Progression :- The movie had a total runtime of 120-130 minutes but wasted it's time on unnecessary aspects like Kyle's cowboy passion and stuff. Instead that time could have been utilized at developing more about Kyle's childhood , his relationship with his brother.
ii) Character Progression :- Bradley meets a girl , they hang out , he goes to war and his wife calls him telling she is pregnant . That is quite seriously how the scenes progressed. There was little to no explanation and absolutely no hints of relationship and chemistry , the pregnancy and the relationship was just forced to focus more on the war aspects.
iii) Fault in marketing :- The movie was sold to us as an intense sniper action movie with a runtime packed with tense set pieces and heart pounding moments. Let me clarify something . It is nothing like how i described it above. This movie should have been called American Shooter or American Gunman because the movie shows Kyle Sniping for the first 30-35 minutes and last 10 minutes of the movie which is kind of sad especially when the actual sniping in American Sniper is only quarter of the total runtime. Lethal shooter yes , sniper , maybe , but the movie has shown me only a few scenes proving the point, and that opening intense scene in the trailer , that's the only intense sniper scene in the whole movie.
I rated this movie an 8 on my first viewing but as I keep thinking about it , the movie keeps going down and down with it's score , the ending , please , the ending was incoherent , loosely left , i get the point that the ending was the way it was described in the source material , but as a part of the movie , the way it was shown , was complete misstep.
On a whole this movie is a good time if you are going in for a 2 hour action flick with little to no character development. This movie is something really perfect if you were bored one day , and watched it when you had absolutely nothing to do , after watching hangover part 2 again. The plot is jumbled , though linear was convoluted by the director , the relationships are messy , but overall for the production money put into this , I would say it's a good action movie , not a very good standalone.