Very Overrated, but still a decent movie.

Rating: 8/10 (3 June 2010)

Sergeant William James is brought in as the new leader of a bomb squad in Iraq but his strange personality and devil-may-care attitude don't really mesh with the rest of his unit.
There are many things I enjoyed about The Hurt Locker. The acting was pretty good all around, especially Jeremy Renner. It was shot very well and the sets really made you feel like you were actually in the Iraq war. The first half hour or so was very good and was truly interested as to where they were going with it. Where they went with however, that wasn't so great. Right around the overly long, poorly explained sniping scene my interest began to shrink and shrink up until the end, which I enjoyed. I also enjoyed that no real side was taken because I am so sick of war movies trying to tell the audience how they should feel about a war.
I found a good majority of The Hurt Locker to be very boring, confusing and a bit unrealistic. There actually weren't that many bomb defusing scenes and I felt that those were by far the most exciting of the movie. The scene where his psychologist dies was extremely transparent as well. It was obvious they were trying to say that he was far too soft to be in the military. He spouts touchy feely psychobabble the entire movie and then he gets blown up because he is too trusting/nice. Not to mention he probably wouldn't be allowed to just wander around during a mission like that. Not cutting edge stuff.
The entire section with the little kid was unnecessary and dull. He goes into town finds the family, questions them, and just waltzes back into the base; Come On. Also, I may have been confused but didn't the kid set up shop inside an American Military base because that doesn't seem right to me.
I personally believe that The Hurt Locker won the Best Picture Oscar and was so highly publicized for 2 reasons.
One, It was about the Iraq war and no one wants to say it is bad. I appreciate what the soldiers are doing too, but that doesn't make the movie any better.
Second, It was directed by a woman, and she is James Cameron's ex-wife. The Academy finally had a woman to hand the Best Director Oscar to and we know how much they love James Cameron.
So, The Hurt Locker is nothing near a classic but it's certainly worth a look.