A pleasant surprise.

Rating: 9/10 (30 October 2014)

Honestly I'm not a fan of war movies but the reviews and critiques of this film were great so I decided to give it a chance. Thank god I did!
At the end of WWII American troops are pushing forward in Germany. Their tanks are not as good as the Germans'. The Germans are desperate and even recruit children to their army. That is where the film takes place.
I recommend this film to everybody. With its very strong visuals and dialogues it perfectly shows how terrible war is (and it's not "over americanized" like for example "Saving Private Ryan") and how hopeless young soldiers are who are there against their will. Here I have to mention the acting of Logan Lerman who was perfect in his role. The other actors were also brilliant. The always criticized Shia LaBeouf really confuted and probably silenced his critics. Brad Pitt also produced one of his best performances. Michael Pena seems to have made a hit and Jon Bernthal showed us that there is life after The Walking Dead.
The sound mixing and editing is the same quality as it was in "Gravity" which film's composer Steven Price has done a great job again with an excellent and powerful soundtrack. The directing was also great. This was the most noticeable in the fight scenes. Those were extremely thrilling and well-done. We have to mention that the movie is mostly built from clichés but uses them so well that we won't even notice.
All in all I think this is how a modern war movie should look like. I hope we hear more about this film when the awarding season comes.