Pretty basic, with no depth to the characters. 4/10

Rating: 4/10 (10 March 2020)

Review:
With all of the Hollywood buzz around 1917, I was surprised that this movie seemed to come and go out of people's minds so quickly after it's release, and now that I have seen the film, I can understand why. After the first 30mins, I totally got fed up with the movie because it turned out to be your typical American heroic film, about guts and glory, which we have seen time and time again. There really wasn't anything original about the film, and the character-building was awful. It's basically a part of American history, which happened after the terrible Pearl Harbour fiasco during World War II. From an entertainment point of view, it does become slightly repetitive, and corny in parts, and the script wasn't that great. Visually, it isn't that bad, and the epic battle scenes sound great, if you have a heavy sound system, but I struggled to keep my eyes open after a while. The performances were mediocre from the whole cast, mainly because it switches between various characters from scene to scene, so it certainly lacked depth. As this is based on a true story, and the characters are actually based on real people, I was intrigued about how the intelligence agency and battle scenes would pan out, but it just turned out to fit every other American war-movie template. On the plus side, I have to commend the director for the attention to detail, and the scale of the whole project, and it was good to feel the intensity from both sides. At the end of the day, it's just worth a one-watch, and I can't see myself going back to it at a later date. Disappointing!
Round-Up:
This movie was directed by Roland Emmerich, who also brought you, Joey, in 1985, Hollywood Monster, Moon 44, Universal Soldier, Stargate, Independence Day, Godzilla, The Patriot, The Day After Tomorrow, 10,000 BC, 2012, Anonymous, White House Down, Stonewall and Independence Day: Resurgence, which was awful. Although I wasn't a fan of the film, Emmerich struggled to get funding for the project, so he had to raise the $100million budget himself, which makes it one of the most expensive independent films of all time. That proves how passionate he was about the project, and he was happy that it made a profit, even though it wasn't any way near the profits that the major players in Hollywood make. It also explains why it didn't have a massive distribution budget, and why it wasn't released in many theatres. With that in mind, it's a great achievement by the director, and he was lucky to get a decent cast on board.
Budget: $100million
Worldwide Gross: $126million
Genre: Action, Drama, History, War
Cast: Ed Skrein, Patrick Wilson, Woody Harrelson, Luke Evans, Mandy Moore, Luke Kleintank, Dennis Quaid, Aaron Eckhart, Keenan Johnson, Nick Jonas, Etsushi Tokokawa, Jake Weber, Darren Criss and Jake Manley. 4/10