Visually and technically impressive, with excellent direction, but the film suffers from an episodic story structure and thin characterisation

Rating: 5/10 (2 April 2010)

When I heard that The Hurt Locker had won Best Picture, I was keen on seeing if it lived up to my expectations. So I watched the film with my dad, brother and sister, and while there were some good things, such as the direction and how it was made, I was left disappointed as well. I really wanted to like this film, but the thing was it didn't completely grip or excite me.
VISUALS: Definitely what made the movie. The locations and scenery gave a real sense of authenticity, and in general the camera work was good. Though in some scenes, there was a little much of the hand held camera stuff, unless it was intentional, some of the camera movements were rather shaky. The special effects were very good though, and there are some terrific looking set pieces.
SOUND: The sound is wonderful. If you have the film on the highest volume, the sound the bombs and guns make is close to deafening. The sound as well as the visuals added to the authenticity.
DIRECTION: Kathryn Bigelow's direction here is astounding. It is secure and focused and avoids red wire/yellow wire cliché and manages not to preach too much.
ACTING: I will be explaining later how disappointed I was in the character development, but I thought the acting was reasonably good with what they had. Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty are believable and display good chemistry together. David Morse and Ralph Fiennes do what they can, which admittedly isn't much, in smaller roles. Evangeline Lilly looks lovely, but she doesn't do or say much other than be another person that one of the characters knows.
MUSIC: I am probably alone in this thought, but the music for me was a disappointment. There are parts where it is generic, and others where scenes are very dramatic where it felt somewhat intrusive.
SCRIPT: The actors don't really have that much to work with. Sure it focuses on the contrasting attitudes and philosophies of the three soldiers, who are aware that any job they do can be their last. The script doesn't do that to convey this though, some of it is clichéd and it felt like every 20 words when one character uttered an obscenity and then another. Plus it doesn't really say that much.
STORY: The story structure felt rather episodic in this film. Immediately after the characters do something they are immediately doing another thing without hesitation. After seeing half an hour or so of shooting guns I did start losing interest, maybe it was to do with the uneven pacing, and not even the final 10 minutes managed to excite me.
CHARACTERS: The characterisation is disappointingly thin here, and to almost all the characters I was indifferent to. Other than the fact they are soldiers and one of them has a wife and baby back home, you don't learn that much about the characters. Throughout they feel rather thinly sketched, perhaps it would've helped if the film had a couple of back stories like they do in Lost. That way I would have felt differently.
Overall, worth watching by all means, but I was expecting more. I am not going to make up your mind for you, but while there were some good things it didn't work for me as well as it could've done. 5/10 Bethany Cox