A New and Refreshing War Movie

Rating: 8/10 (18 November 2015)

I went into this movie hesitantly. I haven't particularly enjoyed war movies like these, like Fury or Saving Private Ryan, so naturally I was surprised when I found that I actually really enjoyed this movie.
American Sniper is very different from other war movies. The plot isn't the driving force, as usual. The story of a war movie rarely goes deeper than 'kill the others guys because our government decided to declare war on them'. Although I have seen plenty of war movies with good plots, they weren't the kinds that were focused on the actual fighting and more focused on the characters doing stuff while a war is happening. So the plot wasn't the different part.
The movie was much more character driven, and the characters were actually good. Unlike the other war movies mentioned, American Sniper had a heavy focus on not only Chris Kyle, but his wife and their relationship. Their relationship was very well done, and actually felt real. It's expected though, considering the movie is based on true events. Nevertheless, it was really nice to see some effort put into the characters.
Overall American Sniper is one of my new favorite war movies. The characters and their relationships is very well developed, but the plot is, as expected, pretty much non-existent, which is fine in a war movie like this. Most of the war movies I've watched have been very predictable: kill people for 2 hours, then all the main characters die. That wasn't the case for this movie, which was really nice. By the end I was actually wondering how it was turn out, because the rest of the movie had been much more difficult to predict than some others. I've read some other reviews, and I really don't understand why those users didn't like the movie, just because some facts about Chris Kyle or something were missing. Who cares? I don't, at least. In the end I would definitely recommend American Sniper. It's easily one of the best war movies I've ever seen.