Ruined by a Preposterous Ending.

Rating: 5/10 (30 June 2015)

Ruined by a Preposterous Ending.
There are not that many films about Allied tank crews, and the idea has potential with the cramped confines of a tank doubling for those of a submarine, and submarine films, with their claustrophobic intensity have a rich history. Director David Ayer has a distinguished action track record behind him, and was behind the commercially successful, but historically risible, U 571.
It tells the story, warts and all, of an American tank crew in the final push into Germany. Authentic to a fault, Brad Pitt is suitably muscular as the tank commander, Shia Lebeouf shades the acting honours though as the reluctant rookie.
Ayer handles the story, and the action sequences well. The gruesome reality of war is well told. But he loses the plot as the story rolls to its climax. Modern audiences are beyond the good guys surviving and triumphing over overwhelming odds, yet at the end, Ayer cannot resist the "against the odds" shoot out, and the SS are caricatured as evil, but inept, fighters.
Without the preposterous ending, "Fury" would be a creditable 7/10, with it, it slips to a lazy 5/10.