Could have been better, should have been better.

Rating: 5/10 (12 February 2014)

*********************DOES CONTAIN SPOILERS***************************** If you're expecting to read a professional review, you're in the wrong area. I saw this today and wanted to share my views.
I was invited to watch this film with some friends. I'd seen the trailer, and hadn't planned to see it, but with this all-star cast, I expected much more.
Maybe audiences have truly become too aware and film-makers just need to try much harder. For this film, it seems all the focus was on appearances, and less on structure.
I found myself wondering why some scenes were in the movie. The young German soldier smoking in the woods at night with Halaban and Murray. It was painful to watch, and I asked myself what possible relevance it could have. It was strained and boring, no drama at all. As good as the shower/record player scene was by Murray, I think Clooney could have used those 7 or 8 minutes on character development earlier on and they would have been better spent. The dialogue was bland and uninteresting. The villains were...well, villains, but they didn't "scare" me. For SS officers, they weren't diabolical enough, evil enough. For me, anyway. Some have described the interaction between Blanchett and Damon as a romance. When? Where? After studying WWI, "Kultur", and the systematic destruction of Belgium's and Northern France's Medieval churches and Cloth Halls by the Hohenzollern Prussian dynasty, I did relate to the premise of the movie, The Monument Men. Perhaps it was to avoid repeating the same cultural rape which occurred in Flanders, a mere 30 years before. It was a good idea, just kinda fell flat.