Very realistic war movie but a bit too much Hollywood (spoiler alert!)

Rating: 7/10 (12 January 2014)

Please note that this review contains some spoilers!
Peter Berg has a lot of movie related "stuff" under his belt, as actor, producer, writer and director. Being interested in movies but perhaps not a real movie buff, I have not really paid attention to his name up until now. Which means I will look out for other movies where he is involved? In Lone Survivor, Berg has really managed to make a movie that gives a good depiction of what a modern war situation can be like for a special forces unit and the (many times, but not every time) heroic individuals that go through the rigorous training required to become a member of those super high performance units. In other words, this war movie works because it provides a good understanding of the people and organization around the Special Forces and the context in which they operate. It is amazing what those men go through and they are definitely made of something else.
Lone Survivor is based on a real SEAL mission back in 2005 in Afghanistan. The movie focuses on the four man SEAL team being tasked with the mission to capture or kill the Taliban leader Ahmad Shahd. The movie starts with showing the team and their friends/colleagues wake up one morning at their base and how they get ready for their mission. Roughly one third into the movie they transported out to the drop point and make their way to the village where their target is. Unfortunately, they are discovered by a group of villagers and from there it goes downhill, in more than one than one way.
The action is good and realistic. The acting is also good and the different characters are built throughout the movie. All of them do a good job depicting what they go through as the situation goes worse and worse. The two hours of movie time is used properly. Personally, I was hoping for a longer battle towards the end, but I guess the fight is over pretty quickly when you have both Apache helicopters and Gunships involved.
This is not a normal Hollywood movie but you can still tell it is made in Hollywood (duh?) which is a criticism in itself (perhaps not logical but I still think it is an issue) and also the end of the movie where they pay homage to the American soldiers who died in this mission. Do not take this the wrong way, I think we should be proud over these men doing this hard and tough job, but from "rating-a-movie" perspective, I think the ending could have been different to leave us thinking a bit more about what happened and why. Also, the characterization of the bad guys is very plain and simple.
I give it a 7/10.