If you want a fantastic true story about war...

Rating: 4/10 (17 March 2017)

...watch All Quiet On The Western Front.
My main disappointment is that this story could have been so much better. It's an intriguing tale that I've never seen made into a movie before. Unfortunately, here it falls flat.
The characters are stereotypes, assembled from a boxed set for kids, complete with pastel paint shades. The dialog consists of predictable clichés. I literally predicted whole sentences in advance, word for word. And I wasn't even trying.
There are anachronisms galore. Not so much the clothes or sets, but the vibe. For example, the boot camp training was Vietnam-era rather than WWII. And the enlisted men didn't act in a way that was true to the time period, either. It'll be close enough for people who don't know the difference, but if you're actually familiar with the era it is obviously inaccurate.
This fakeness made it impossible for me to get immersed or to suspend disbelief. It was like watching a high school play, albeit with better special effects.