Fury - Review: Context with no Substance

Rating: 5/10 (28 January 2015)

Fury is a war movie that depicts war violence in a real form. Realistic war is throughout, but that's all this film has going for it.
All of the actors in the film did their jobs. However, all I saw were actors in a film. Brad Pitt gave his performance but, the only person I saw was Brad Pitt. Shia Labeouf did his job and he was good but, I only saw Shia Labeouf and not the character. All of the actors played different types of characters but, none of the characters in the film were important.
In my opinion, none of the actors characters held any significance. When a situation occurred it didn't really matter. The Characters (in my opinion) ultimately ended up nowhere. The film stayed on an A line and never really progressed to a B or C line. Nothing really happened in the film but the exact same situations. The film didn't try to go further.
The story moved and it moved along and then, I slowly started to realize that the story wasn't really going anywhere. All of the characters in the film went through a continuous series of circumstances. The characters formed a bond, they stuck together, and they tried to survive. The physically and emotional scars of battle (I felt) were freshly drawn on the characters faces. The characters showed their emotions through action. However, there was nothing more in the film than continuous circumstances, sticking together, trying to survive, and fighting in a gut-wrenching battle.
I felt like the tedious display of non-stop gut-wrenching survival war violence just didn't stop. The film didn't switch gears or even try to offer anything different.
I was suppose to care about what happened to each character, but I only partially cared. When something happened to a character I'd say, "Oh, you can't do that to Shia Labeouf or etc." I wanted to know who the character was and that didn't happen. I wanted to understand each character. I wanted to get inside each of the characters heads. I wanted the characters to be drawn out more. I knew how the characters felt during their moments of despair but, I didn't understand each of them as an individual. I wanted to know the characters stories, motivations, and what made them tick besides Nazis and losing their brothers in battle. How can I really care when I don't really know who you are? Moments happened in the film but, moments happened fast. Moments zipped by with no real connection. I wanted to soak everything in and feel the moment. Give me some time with the moment and the character. I want to feel the pain and sorrow the character feels but, I only partially did. Some scenes where better than others but, not one scene in the film (to me) was really memorable or impactive.
Fury is a good movie. Fury is bloody, cruel, unmerciful, unsettling, and realistic. However, Fury is not emotional, depressing, eventful, or charterer driven.
Fury has context but it lacks substance.
Fury could have been so much more.