Could have been good, or something

Rating: 3/10 (16 January 2015)

This is a negative review, the positives in this movie is all boring usual stuff, some sets, and some actors or whatever
This was a disappointing movie, going in to it having read by many critics it was good. My main problem is that the movie wants to be somewhat epic, but the story just seemed so arbitrary. It's a hard war with stupid Germans and mythical non-human SS. They get orders to take some town, then have a forced dinner party with some gentle raping (she likes it), then they have to go and save some people we never see or care about. (this is a MOVIE, we can't just be told this) The other tanks get destroyed by a (again) stupid German tank, who refuses to use his advantage, the long range gun. Run head on, you fanatical arrogant nazi übermensch! Nobody is afraid of dying here, non-humans as they are. They survive, drive on, and soon is immobilized by a mine on some road somewhere. Here, on this dirt road, after no build-up or reason we as an audience can feel, they suddenly want to commit a heroic defense/suicide. Because Americans are really tough when it comes to a good cause? They felt so awfully invested in human rights and freedom, killing, laughing, pillaging and raping all the way. The have fought many years, but on this dirt-road, they plan to make a last stance? 'Oh, right, it was a sentence somewhere about someone needing to be defended..?'. I mean, realistically, would a ww2 tank commander expect to stop a force of several hundred SS with panzerfausts, with a limp tank? Oh, it's a good cause, and then they can beat all odds, audiences love inspiring messages. If you believe..!
And then a predictable boring battle ensues, with the crew dying as heroes for 'our freedom', killing faceless hordes of stunt-men playing evil Germans who can't use the anti-tank weapons they all carry. With this kill-ratio, they should have only needed some 50 tanks to destroy the entire German army. And I might add, always cast people who look bad or evil as the enemy, then we as audience feel it's okay.
And that bumbling new crew-member, he went from scared, to traumatized (forced to shoot POW so he learns to kill and end the war faster?, i'd like to hear this logic applied in Iraq), then to really enjoying killing 'nazis', and in the evening, wanting to die with his dear tank commander. Really? Does he have Stockholm syndrome? Goldfish-memory?
But war is hell, or something.. This was no Saving Ryan or BOB, just a expensive look-alike. The feeling watching it shouldn't be a mix of 'oh, it's _this_ scene now' and 'why did they do that?'