Break it down again

Rating: Null/10 (3 January 2015)

First off, I haven't seen Jolie's 'In the land of blood and honey' debut, so I won't know how this compares.
Secondly, one would never, ever know that this was written by the (credited) Coen bros. Ever.
However, Jolie seems to have got the period settings right, and the way she films scenes of harrowing action, thrill and abuse, it surely seems the work of a seasoned veteran, so she definitely has learnt from a few/all of her directors.
However, this one compares poorly with other works of it's ilk, esp. 'Letters from Iwo Jima' (coincidentally, Eastwood, who helmed that, directed Jolie in 'Changeling', which was underrated and poorly received, and did not deserve the hate that came its way) and the like, and that does not work to its advantage at all.
The new finds, in terms of its leads, also portray their roles like seasoned performers, but it's not enough to set this work of art apart from many that have come before.
What was disappointing to me, mostly, was the oft-repeated use of wartime clichés, with this hopping genres from a period sports drama to a survivors' tale and then a POW camp drama, and while that is addressed seamlessly in terms of transition, most of it seems to have been done for effect, and there is no avoiding the clichés inherent in each of those genres. It would have been prudent, IMO, to have avoided those altogether and see how that played.
The good parts? The amazing action-sequences, that place us in the middle of it all. The unobtrusive/unintrusive CGI. The makeup. The performances, that do not have the necessary solid characterization to build from. The cinematography - Roger Deakins (to be fair though, this is far from his best work, and nevertheless, I'm calling it out in a complimentary fashion). A few themes in the background score, esp. at the beginning.
As far as pacing goes, while it is decently paced, and unhurried (IMO, that is how a movie should be paced), it still could have been trimmed by not having those oft-repeated genre-specific clichés that call attention to themselves, esp. to a seasoned movie-watcher.
Conclusively, while this has got a lot going for it, it still doesn't have that vital something that would set it apart. In spite of all that, this is very much a big-screen experience, and needs to be appreciated thus.