Good, not great

Rating: 8/10 (10 July 2010)

I was rooting for Avatar in the Oscars but I hadn't seen this by that time. I'm happy that Kathryn Bigelow got the Best Director award because she was the first woman to get it, but I think James Cameron truly deserved it.
The Hurt Locker is a good movie. It really is. I think it does a fine job portraying the madness of war and how everyone is in danger and death comes in a blink of an eye, it doesn't ask who you are or announce its coming.
But the thing that bothered me was that I think the crew was trying to make a great movie, they HAD to make a great movie. and it showed. The trying really showed and you got the feeling that it wasn't so enjoyable. I keep comparing this to Avatar, but with Avatar and with a lot of past Best Picture winners (or movies that should have won it..) you get the feeling that people behind the camera love what they're doing and it brings something more to the film. I didn't get it here.
But The Hurt Locker still does its trick. The actors are great, I loved Jeremy Renner, his character was really interesting, especially in the end. Visually, it's... interesting. I think with shooting in documentary style, if you will, it's risky, because some will love and others will hate it. I personally liked it and I think it fit the movie but I understand that not everyone will like it.
In the end The Hurt Locker is a good film and I'm not sorry that I bought the DVD. I'm happy that this won the Best Picture award because it takes you right there where the soldiers are. In the heat, the desert. What shocked me the most, was how the soldiers keep on living there. Their life doesn't stop or anything because they're in the middle of the war. It just alters a little, but it's life. Their life. and that was more shocking and sad for me than anything else there.