I avoid it now like the plague.

Rating: 1/10 (13 January 2004)

Warning, may contain spoilers
I only whent to see this because I was dragged along by a friend. I didn't want to see it then and I still regret I ever saw it. I want my money and my two hours and twenty four minutes of my life back.
What tries to come over as an anti-war movie delivers a patronising effort with a strong good guy/bad guy element, which anti-war movies should leave out altogether, it's not about whos right and wrong it's about everyone suffering. The comparisons were all too obvious. There were the soldiers fun loving, chidrens book illustrating, old show watching, family men. On the other side you had the grouchy, savage, militia. I am not denying the militia used hunger as a weapon, but the foreign forces there weren't the angels they were made out to be. They probably caused more damage and killed more people than the militia. The assistance by the army in this film is all to obvious. The movie was so slanted.
Another problem was the excessive violence, sure thats what war is, but the movie was so quick to quick to violence, and when it got there we were immersed in it save for a few quick breathers, that we had no time to learn about the characters. What we did learn was little and scattered. Characters in movies should have more depth than what happened here. You can leave out excessive violence, and give time for the characters to develop while still conveying and anti-war message. Enemy at the Gates is pure testimony to that.
All that was good about the movie was the quote at the beginning by Plato, as I ma a lover of antiquity, the music which was reminiscent of Gladiator the better of the two by Scott. I was pretty ticked off at Eric Bana for doing this, if he hadn't made up for this with the mildly amusing Nugget, and the intellectual Hulk, I would have disliked him intensely. McGregor continued his run of bad movies such as Star Wars Episode I and this, making up for it with Episode II. And how could Orlando Bloom do the original (and worthy nearl three hours Lord of the Rings) and then do this churned out propaganda, thankfully he more than made up for it with the other two in the Rings triology. I'm interested to see how Bana and Bloom go in Troy.

The lesson from this keep Bruckheimer away from supposedly anti-war movies.