Clichéd War porn

Rating: 6/10 (20 October 2014)

There is an ongoing trend in movies about World War II to be "gritty", in other words showing as many body parts flying as possible. Be it a leg amputated by machine gun, or a head vaporizing from a shell. While perhaps it is "realistic", it isn't necessary, and hides the fact that this movie is a string of clichés, with a few trite expressions thrown in to make Brad Pitt seem Oscar worthy.
The most obvious cliché is the innocent kid getting thrown into the war and seeing how gruesome war is. He tries to maintain his ideals in the brutal face of war. Everyone else is already hardened and cynical and on the brink of being animals. The spoiler here is obvious, the innocent boy starts enjoying killing Nazis. The turn is actually terribly done, since basically he ends up killing some Germans and suddenly likes it. Just like that.
Aside from the clichés and gore, it isn't badly done for a war movie. I have to sat Shia Lebeouf probably does the best acting of his career and probably does the best acting of any of the main characters.