Impressive-looking and well-staged while lacking in emotional impact

Rating: 6/10 (19 July 2015)

So many war films have been made that it's very hard to create something new or original anymore, at least as far as the drama and story is concerned. David Ayer's gritty, realistic style is pretty much a perfect fit for this type of film, but it was lacking in rich characters and emotional heft (at least to me). The story is about a Sherman tank crew during the final days of WWII who must face overwhelming odds to survive. You have Brad Pitt as the chief, Michael Pena as the driver, Jon Bernthal as the loader, Shia LeBeouf as the gunner, and Logan Lerman as a doe-faced replacement who must overcome his reluctance to fight and kill. I don't think you could have a more stereotypical group of people in a war film. Brad Pitt seems to be playing a more grounded, stoic version of his character from INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, while Michael Pena and Jon Bernthal barely register as little more than caricatures of people. Shia LeBeouf actually acquitted himself rather nicely as a Bible-quoting soldier, which at least distinguished him somewhat from the rest. Logan Lerman, as a conduit for the audience, has a good character arc although it's one we've seen dozens of times before. From a writing perspective, FURY settles for "been there, done that" and it suffers as a result. However, David Ayer knows his way around action and the various battle sequences were pretty awesome. I don't think I've seen a war film centered around tank warfare, so at least that was new to me. The violence was gritty and realistic, but not overly graphic. I also thought that the color palate and cinematography helped to create a very distinctive mood and atmosphere, helped along by the often melancholy score. Aside from this, there was a respite from the violence in the middle where Logan Lerman's and Brad Pitt's characters get some development as they temporarily shack up in a house with two German girls. This segment of the film had my favorite part, which is when Logan Lerman plays a song on the piano and one of the girls starts singing along. It was the sweetest moment in an otherwise rather dark film. Thematically, I think the film was often at odds with itself. It wants you to see the protagonists as heroes, yet other than the fact that they're fighting for what we already know is the winning side, little they do would suggest that they are heroic. I'd also be hard-pressed to call any of the characters "complex." When it comes down to it, FURY is a rather simple war film that has visceral action and intense visuals. It should do fine for the average film-goer, but I was left wanting a little more.