Well done - and six of the guys with me agreed!

Rating: 8/10 (10 December 2014)

I want to start by acknowledging some comments by other reviewers and add some personal observations. I sincerely want to comment on the movie and not the other reviews, but I feel the best way to do that is to call out comments made by other reviewers that differed from my experience.
To the reviewer that suggested the training was unnecessary, I would offer a counter argument. I thought the witty one-liners brought a levity to the movie that helped balance the weightiness of the movie. You'll notice that as the movie developed, the levity/humor at the beginning of the movie were displaced with a much heavier/somber tone.
I agree with the reviewer that commented the baby looked fake. It wasn't in anyway a critical flaw, but I agree I wish it had been handled better. That said, to "laugh" as one reviewer suggests they missed the point. At that point in time, the movie was showing the developing tension at home and what he was leaving behind to serve.
To the reviewer that commented the movie spent to much flashing between @home, @war, @home, @war... I found purpose in that as well. It helped develop and maintain the story of what the struggle that developed as he battled with the the balance between a family at home and a patriotic sense of duty and obligation to care for the soldiers he served with.
I understand some reviewers didn't care for the ending where it relegated the murder of Chris Kyle to a closing caption... on the other hand thought, I thought it was wise to handle it the way they did. To spend film time on his own demise would have detracted from everything that had been built up to this point. I'm personally glad they chose to focus on the life of Chris Kyle rather than his death.
Now that I'm finished defending the movie against comments I take issue with, I want to add some observations that I do believe have validity (and have been pointed out by other reviewers in slightly different words). This movie tries to take on a LOT- arguably too much- and as a result doesn't do any of it excellently. I found all of the following elements underdeveloped: the sense of patriotic duty within a soldier, the obligation to defend those he served with (arguably the most developed theme of the movie), the conflict at home with his wife and family, development of family relationships (with his father and his own son), the trauma and intensity of war, the PTSD experienced by returning soldiers and the loss they suffer, the personal battle that develops between Chris Kyle and the enemy (the other sniper, the government ransom, etc.), the morality and evil of war, and the legacy and heroism of the man that is the most lethal sniper in American history.
Conclusion: Understand in advance everything the movie was trying to encompass and just let yourself experience the movie. I suspect you'll be drawn in. I and the six other guys I went with found it well done and we were very happy we got to see the sneak preview in advance of the release.