Seems like any other war movie...

Rating: 6/10 (30 October 2014)

I haven't seen EVERY war movie ever made, I've seen a lot of them. And just one mans opinion here, but I don't know what to think.
The scenery is great, classic world war II scenery (has been done a TON of times). And the story is your typical band of brothers squad, you have your messed up in the head character, your overly religious character, your emotionally scarred leader, a innocent young man and a Mexican (that's about it, his character is just for exposition, handle the gun and saying Spanish words and being "suave" with German women. And he is just as messed up about the war as anyone else in the group). This time it is a tank squad, which offer great and intense action scenes. I really like the camera work and the sound during the fights, sometimes they can be a bit overbearing. But hey, that just puts you in the action more. So I don't mind it since I see a purpose for it.
The portray of world war II is also basic, you have the weathered soldiers that's fed up with everything and the naive young man that thinks there is a peaceful way out. And I can't say what could've been done instead since this is what you'd expect a war situation to be like. But the problem that I have with it is that it's been done SO many times before. Not breaking any new ground in my humble opinion, but that doesn't make it an unentertaining movie.
And who can forget the ever present patriotism and the new wave of film to use musical sounds to make sure that you know what is going on. Seriously, who DOESN'T think that the Nazis are terrible people when you show the people they've hanged for refusing to fight for Germany (or every other thing they did during the war and before that, goes without saying though)? You don't need to use musical sounds to make sure the audience can feel the tension of a scene, war is intense. It doesn't need constant musical accompany, because the imagery is tense as it is. Subtlety would've been the more effective route. Now it just feels like another winners tale of the world war II movie.
Also, one last thing. At the end, where one of the squad members is hiding from the Nazis. They should've just shot him, when you build up the Nazis as these ultra bad guys you could at least try something different. That ONE soldier that suddenly gains a conscience, at the END of the movie. Give me a break. Yeah, yeah, the humanity and not everyone is bad thing. But the guy KILLED hundreds of your army friends, and you're just gonna let him go? Yeah right...
Watch it for the cool action, camera work and sounds. But it's not groundbreaking, and definitely not 8/10.