"Formulaic" isn't a crime. But "Badly Formulaic" is !

Rating: 6/10 (11 October 2011)

You know the story very well. You know its end from the start. You have seen the movie before, hundreds of times too. Actually, you have seen all the movies before, since they all feed on the same ideas. So what's the different thing that may make you watch? It's the script's treatment; being a key player in that game of "making the different thing" which is called movies.
This time, there are a true story, some emotionality involved, many characters, and the meaning about the importance of playing more than the importance of winning, as if playing is winning itself; if only you can do it.
The movie's feelings are clear. It has many artistic merits, topped by the acting, the cinematography, and the directing; who though that (Mc.G) can make movies else Charlie's Angels 1 and 2?! But eventually it doesn't hold to that spirit of "different" much.
Save (President Dedmon), played by (David Strathairn), the characters aren't interesting enough. Take for instance the lead character. That full-of-life man seems perfect, throwing pieces of wisdom to everybody, making jokes all the time, and his only mistake is not knowing how to change a diaper; which he even did anyway. That, as a whole, is the interpretation of BORING!
You can say the same about the situations. There is no scene where I felt how the lead character affected the team in a deep way, not preachy way. We hear about him having dinner with the remaining-alive members of the old team, and never see anything. Why the dead team is out of the picture?! They are like "Them" all along. Not relating them to the present characters took a lot of the movie's drama. The angry father and the young waitress's line was good, but what about the rest, especially when you don't have, a la the comic version of the same movie, the funny players to utilize and fill the movie with their various antics.
The third act is disappointing; it has predictable everything. There is no surprise whatsoever. The scene of the speech is worn-out, with nothing new about it. It's where I was bored to death! The last match is a farce; now here's a worthless and usual TV work. Not writing the end's narrated information right, underling the meaning of the "importance of playing", caused a laugh in the wrong place. So that *great* coach, with his *great* team, had 9 winnings and 33 loses??!!
As you see, with the lack of interesting characters, good situations, smart details, saturated storylines--the movie suffered from dramatic emptiness. That's why (Matthew Fox) and (Anthony Mackie) spent their time just crying! Therefore, the feelings of hope, determination and beating the grief are there, but not actively achieved. And, as a result, the predictability was allowed to run the matters as another sport movie with "underachievers-go-achievers", so instead of utilizing the trite frame, there was nothing else it, being done a bit poorly too.
They tried to use (Matthew McConaughey)'s talent and name to present a distinct lead character, but nothing was thorough about it. And the script tended to a documentary-like trait, which is bad according to the true story's emotional power. See how uneven this movie is!
By traditional and somewhat blank treatment, it didn't get to be the different thing. Hence, (We Are Marshall) couldn't rescue itself from falling into the sin of "badly formulaic". Using the formula isn't a crime, but doing nothing with it.. surely is!