Decent acting, beautiful scenery, and an effort at being an endearing romance, but fell a little short.

Rating: 7/10 (14 February 2010)

First off I'd like to say, I don't think this movie deserves the criticism it's getting. But then again, I am on IMDb.com, and I know there are a ton of people on here who bash the majority of movies out there.
I came into the movie of Dear John with somewhat high expectations, since it is, after all, #1 in the box office, and I came out thinking, "that was really sweet and almost had me in tears at one part of the movie. It wasn't as good as what I expected, a bit disappointing, but I'm glad I saw it." I really liked seeing these actors (Channing Tatum, Amanda Seyfriend) in a more serious drama, and I loved the father-son aspect. There were definitely some strong points to it, and the beaches and everything were beautiful. There were a couple of holes and unresolved things- like John's past and how he "caused trouble", but we do know he is a violent person after his encounter with that guy who also liked Savannah, plus the scar on his face, so he probably just got in a lot of fights, and I don't think his past was an extremely important part of the movie.
Over-all, the movie had it's flaws and strengths, and had the power to be amazing but fell a little short because of the mediocre acting in some parts and lazy directing/producing. The people who put everything together in the end barely did their part in some ways. For some scenes, it seemed like they only asked the actors to run through it once and then said "okay, this is good let's use it", when clearly it needed a little more work. The script wasn't great at parts, too. The beginning was slow-moving and a little awkward, but the movie got much better as it went on. And of course the idea/writing of the movie itself, being a Nicholas Sparks story, was beautiful. The music was also phenomenal.
My advice; don't go into the movie with high expectations, try to draw your own conclusions from certain things/read the book, and please don't listen to most people on here who are basing their whole review on the flaws. Give it a chance and recognize the good parts of the movie. For me, it was worth seeing one time.