"Get me into a damn plane!" Ben, I think the more appropriate request would be "Get me into a half-decent movie!"

Rating: 6/10 (23 April 2005)

After seeing this film, I have to say that I'm glad I listened to what all my friends were saying about this film and only paid attention to less than half of this film. The two battle scenes were what I found worth watching, and I hadn't expected anything else, from what everyone told me about the film. Had I not been fully aware that nothing other than those two scenes were worth watching, had my state of mind been completely open to this film, I would have hated it, and my review would have been a thoroughly negative one. It's more than likely that I would have commented on Jerry Bruckheimer's and Michael Bay's lack of actual talent and their extreme use of explosions(usually overplayed and overdone ones) to cover this up. But I won't. I won't comment much on plot, pacing, acting or characters. I could complain that this is just another typical, empty Hollywood film that takes a historical event and smothers in with romance and sappy sentimentality instead of bringing the real story(as if it didn't have enough impact on its own), much like they(seemingly; haven't seen it, for obvious reasons) did with Titanic. I could argue that the plot is thin and everything but the actual historical events seem bland and unimportant, that the acting seems flat, the pacing excruciatingly bad and the characters paper-thin clichés and stereotypes. But I'll try not to. Instead, I will comment on the two battle scenes, for those who share my point of view on the sappy romantic drivel of many late epic films. They look pretty good. The effects are impressive, though the CGI is overly obvious at times. Most of it looks good, and the overuse of explosions supposedly won't bother most action fans(though I, being in favor of realism in war movies, found this to be quite bothersome and annoying). If you really like strong war-action, you should check out a movie that delivers more of it(like Black Hawk Down) or at a far more realistic approach to it(like Der Untergang). However, if you want to see the Bruckheimer version of a war scene, by all means, see this film. I warn you, though, most of it is simply not worth paying attention to. I recommend this to fans of war movies with Hollywood action scenes and/or people who can't watch a movie that doesn't contain romance. 6/10