Epic scenes and unrealistic story.

Rating: 8/10 (26 October 2014)

About a week ago, I hate when this happens, but I had a strange urge to watch a war movie. So I hopped on the internet and tried to find what I could watch for free. "Apocalypse Now" was the only critically acclaimed one I could find, so I decided to spend my evening with Martin Sheen. When it finished, I felt awful. I felt like I was a terrible person, which is what Coppola was going for, but it wasn't exactly what I had planned to conclude my otherwise delightful day. In a way, "Fury" was the same type of war movie. It wasn't trying to tell a great story or show you good and heroic people, it was detailing the horrors and atrocities that make human war.
"Fury" is a film about World War II that shows us a new take on the terrible fighting that went on: the life of the men inside the tanks. Following a young man named Norman who is forced to become a member of the already close crew that makes Fury after one of the members is killed, we see this side through the slowly adapting virgin eyes of war. There are some awful things that happen, and through Norman's eyes, we witness them firsthand.
Brad Pitt is the big name advertised in this film, making up one of five primary characters in the film. His performance was one of my favorites, with just the right voice, look, and demeanor to play the role he intended. Logan Lerman played our eyes in the movie, doing a fine job of giving enough character while still making himself relatable to all viewers. Michael Pena and John Bernthal also played crew members of the destructive tank Fury, each taking on roles of the two different soldier stereotypes. Shia LaBeouf, an actor who I don't particularly have much favor for, got into this role like I've never seen him do. His commitment to the part really showed, giving us by far the deepest character in the movie, which is impressive considering he had little script to back him up.
David Ayer directs this film, and it was clear he had a set idea in mind. Taking a script he also penned with a very intriguing story, Ayer had just a couple things he needed to put together in order to complete his idea. Some of these he did something about, others he didn't bother. To begin with, the screenplay lacked depth in characters and their development. Our essential lead, played by Logan Lerman, had the typical and almost clichéd development as the boy who learns to be a man, but otherwise the characters were given at the start of the film and stayed constant throughout the entire movie. This is a movie with essentially just five characters, so development is very necessary to elicit enough intrigue, however with this movie it wasn't there.
Second, Ayer had to find the right tech guys to make this movie happen. The visual effects artists did a fine job in this film, though at times they, along with Ayer, made some interesting decisions. There were times where the animations would appear entirely realistic, but had almost cartoonish underlying suggestions. It worked, but it was hard to not notice. Ayer really hit the nail on the head though when he got to work with his sound guys. In any war movie, the sound is essential to bring it to life, and here the work was done with perfection. If any other sound mixers win at the Academy Awards this year, I will be very surprised. Finally, and this is the case with any movie, but Ayer had to take his screenplay and make it cool. This is a war movie about fighting tanks, the biggest, baddest, and most impressive part of early twentieth century war: we need to see come cool action scenes with awesome fight choreography. Here, Ayer delivered with flying colors. There's one scene in particular in "Fury" where it's a full-on open field fight between one tank and four others. This has to be one of the most gripping war film scenes I've ever seen. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, and was not disappointed by the climatic conclusion. In the end, I enjoyed this movie very much. It was loaded with clichés, the character development was seriously lacking, and it was kind of long, but I was thoroughly entertained. In the likeness of "Apocalypse Now," "Fury" was incredibly violent with gruesome depictions, which is exactly what was intended, but can be disturbing and repellant to some viewers. The people I saw this movie with did not like it, mostly because of these reasons, but I was honestly surprised by its quality. So as I walked out of the theater, I was wanting to wash my hands and see it again. I give "Fury" an 8.2/10