Let down by battle scenes

Rating: 5/10 (20 October 2014)

I felt the film was strong in some parts and week in others, the acting was superb and the core story of the tank crew and how they interacted and reacted on their journey was terrific and felt realistic, where the film failed for me was in the battle scenes, many of the scenes were a bit like watching a game of battleships, an example is a field scene when the Germans open fire with some machine gun fire, the Americans then return fire, this goes on until the machine guns are taken out, then the Germans open fire with an anti-tank gun, the same thing goes on until that is taken out, then the Germans open fire with another anti- tank gun, again the same thing. The final battle scene which should have been the most exciting and terrifying part of the film was the most disappointing, Germans just running about in front of an immobilised tank getting mowed down by its machine guns. Brad Pitts character spends an amazing amount of time on the outside of the tank which is surrounded by hundreds of Germans before a German sniper eventually gets him, two grenades are dropped into the tank and yet when the remaining crew member crawls back into the tank the rest of the dead crew look remarkably intact. Even the Tiger tank scene failed to raise the excitement levels as it was all too predictable as to what the final outcome of the scene was going to be, another fail was whenever someone was injured or died there was a silence as if the Germans decided to stop fighting to let the Americans come to terms with their latest causality. Fury made me recall the battle scenes in Saving Private Ryan because they were done so much better in that film, the scene with the Tiger tank gave me flashbacks to Kelly's Heroes again another film that done it so much better. Part of the problem is our expectations are raised at the beginning of the film as the opening credits state that the Allies encountered ferocious resistance in the end days of the war, what we end up seeing is the Germans being military naive and suicidal. The core story is good, the film is gritty and brutal but in the end what should have been the films strongest card the battle scenes, let it down.