Incredibly over-rated

Rating: 3/10 (15 January 2014)

Incredibly overrated This movie is very overrated. Whilst I don't think Avatar deserved best picture at the Oscars, neither did this film.
In many of James Cameron's movies we have an unrealistic gung-ho military, I'm thinking in particular of Aliens and Avatar. But at least those movies are fantasies. The hurt-locker is supposed to be based in reality, so the ridiculously inaccurate depiction of the current day US army is just lazy. Getting an accurate depiction of Vietnam 20 yrs after the war (Platoon) and WW2 60 yrs after the war (Saving Private Ryan) is challenging, but getting an accurate depiction of the Iraq occupation (sorry I can't quite call the action a 'war') whilst it's still happening should be relatively easy! I have some military experience, but not US army and certainly not in the Middle East, so not all the inaccuracies jumped out at me (read other reviews to get details of these). However, the very notion that a nut-job would allowed to continue operating as an EOD is just stupid. EODs need to be extremely calm and collected, and never take unnecessary risks. I'm sure that in reality EODs are regularly psych evaluated too.
The scene where dozens of Iraqis are 'spectators' of the diffusing of a bomb, was just absurd. Most sane civilians would clear the area fast. That EODs would continue to diffuse a bomb with Iraqi spectators handling mobile phones (possible bomb triggers) is even more ridiculous. That an EOD unit would have no escort is also absurd.
As a Brit, I found the SAS (R. Fiennes) / sniper scene completely absurd too. Since when would members of an EOD unit be crack snipers? Since when would an insurgent/Iraqi sniper 'team' be good enough to take out an SAS unit at that distance? One lucky shot maybe, but come on. That whole scene was just nonsense.
On top of all this there is no real plot, or story. The cinematography is not that great, and the particularly annoying 'shaking camera' technique is over employed.
The sad thing is, this could have been so, so much better. A more realistic depiction of military practices and operations coupled with less absurd characters and an engaging story could have equaled a genuine masterpiece. There is plenty of real drama in any military conflict, with no need to dream up fantastical tripe like this! Come on Kathryn .. some more like Point Break please, less like The Hurt Locker.