Not the best of 2009

Rating: 7/10 (1 March 2010)

Although I had no plans to see "The Hurt Locker" as I tend to shy away from modern war movies especially any with Iraq as the battle front, I did see it recently after hearing buzz about it being the best film of the year. In fact one report had director James Cameron - ex-husband of the film's director Kathryn Bigelow - saying that "The Hurt Locker" was the "Platoon" of the Iraq war.
I have to disagree. While it's a good movie especially for Bigelow, I don't think it's the best film of 2009.
The reason it's good but not great is that the last third kind of drags and the character arcs aren't done very well. The acting was decent - even above average - but after seeing one bomb disposal scene you've seen them all.
Unlike "Platoon" there was little battle action. Watching the unit work was interesting but not much happened with them and a couple of scenes of extended battle action seemed out of place to be honest. There also was a jarring setting at home for one of the characters that showed up all of a sudden.
The film "Platoon" also used their scenes to comment on the political and social aspects of the Vietnam conflict through the actions and interactions of the members of the platoon. In "The Hurt Locker" there really was none of that.
There have been better Iraq war movies including the recent mini-series on HBO called - "Generation Kill" - that had more elements in common with Platoon than this film did.
As I said "The Hurt Locker" was a good movie and interesting but not the best of 2009 and certainly not "The Platoon of the Iraq War..." unless you think a good war movie just has brooding men and no commentary on the war itself.