Hard to believe this guy made Battleship

Rating: 7/10 (1 January 2014)

During the Weidman vs. Silva fight I saw a short interview with Peter Berg and the real life hero, Marcus Lutrell promoting the film and was curious if Battleship boy found a big shovel or not to get him out of that deep pit he put himself in. (I realize there were complications and Peter wanted to make this film first but the fans don't know these things, just the end results.)
To begin, Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg and any other folks with a berg in their name involved in this film should be very proud of this result. I'm not a Wahlberg lover or hater but have seen most of his work and this stands apart from the rest by far. All actors are amazing and there's not enough space to give proper kudos, but extra points to Taylor Kitsch after bad beats with Carter and that ship mentioned and who continues to show great acting chops after Savages. This kid's going places ma.
It is clear from the start that there is realism and presence and insight provided not only from our true surviving hero Lutrell, who was to say the least, intensely involved with the making of the film and proclaimed what a great job Walhberg did of transforming himself into him, but from many other actual soldiers who faced the fire and were extras as well.
It was upsetting to see so many reviews focusing only on and condemning how unrealistic the battle scenes are. I've personally broken my back in two places on a fall which was an absolute minor fraction of the seemingly endless cringe-worthy falls these guys took but at the end of the day if they didn't absorb falls and bullets a bit more than normal this film would have lasted 45 minutes tops. (I would've cut things a bit more but it's Hollywood folks, suck it up.)
As a proud American who would usually just say go and nuke em and start over, it was also a huge breath of fresh air and reality check to see portrayed actual kind and decent Afghani folk who did in fact risk their own lives unnecessarily for an American life, tradition or not. Even if it looks like it was filmed in great camping locations in the Midwest, the acting was first rate by all and compensated for these minor errors which will only be picked up by a small margin of viewers.
All in all this is an excellent piece of work which I'm still shocked was done by the same guy that did Battleship. It's as if he sat down with Kathryn Bigelow and took serious notes, but nodded out here and there on occasion or lost some of his notes on the way to the edit room.
Now here's a humble critic's short list for how this film could have been edited to perfection and why it lost only three stars:
1. No matter if the book title is the same or not, this is one of those rare situations where it is not only unnecessary to keep the same name, but an absolute necessity to change it. I kept asking myself the whole film, "I wonder how this guy's gonna get it?". Please explain where any value comes from giving away the fact everyone dies but Marky? (I simply don't get the reason for giving away the whole story when most of the viewers haven't heard of the book or the Red Wings mission.)
2. The cute clean-cut blond kid recruit with the perfectly moussed hair - no way. This guy would be doing everything in his power to emulate his mentors who all looked like they just rolled out of bed after camping for a month without any hygienic supplies whatsoever. It's not anywhere near as bad as casting Rihanna, but if you're going to leave popcorn alien and go heavy serious it matters and counts. (Even if he wasn't yet allowed at his rank to go full grunge he wouldn't have gone GQ.)
3. There's one short line where Bana barks out an order and it is in his pure Australian accent. (Sorry Eric, you're a hero.) It's short and maybe hard for most to catch, but clear. That's a quick fix. Someone should have caught it.
4. Even as a person with no military experience I continually kept questioning the setups and tactical locations they chose out in the open. That, coupled with the seemingly bionic ability to take pain like Wolverine and keep going is where we left reality entirely.
5. I hate it when a director like the one hit wonder Shamylamylan guy or Berg feels the need to put themselves in their films even if it is for a couple seconds. If you absolutely must do this how about we make it non-speaking roles in the future? It doesn't matter if you like him, you're not Hitchcock and fat boy likely rolls in his grave a bit over this. (Because it's such a short arrogance shot no actual stars were taken away, just annoyance points earned and reality points taken away.)
Cut out those minor infractions, in one fan's opinion, it'd be perfect. Great job.
Side note to Michael Bay:
As you can see, it is possible to make both complete popcorn nonsense and serious gut-wrenching drama. I am aware you two do know each other so I ask that maybe you call and take a tip from your pal Pete and leave your ego at the door for once and let someone else do the writing, casting and all other major input and who knows, maybe someday at the Oscars they'll at least point the camera where you're sitting? Fingers crossed!