Nothing New

Rating: 3/10 (15 January 2015)

I was prompted to see this movie because of it's 6 Oscar nominations, but watching this left me sorely disappointed. This film isn't necessarily "bad", but if you've seen Zero Dark Thirty (2012) or The Hurt Locker (2007), then you've already seen this movie; American Sniper is just a lesser version of the two previously mentioned films.
I'm a fan of Bradley Cooper, but he only gives a fair performance along with the rest of the cast in this movie and while Clint Eastwood has directed some great films, this is far from any of them in terms of quality and entertainment. American Sniper feels like an extended commercial to join the Navy; the movie may not glorify violence, but it certainly glorifies war. The most aggravating thing about this movie is that it's just mediocre through-out. It's painfully predictable; you can almost snap your fingers in sync to the gun shots during the sudden bursts of violence.
If this film had come out 10 years ago, it would've been better, but with the context of recent war movie releases American Sniper is just a poor attempt to copy what Kathryn Bigelow has already accomplished with her war movies. 2014 was a great year for movies, but this is not one of them.