Action Lovers Rejoice

Rating: 5/10 (9 May 2011)

If you love action, regardless of the realism sacrificed, then yes you will love this. And I'm talking for beginners of the war genre as a whole. Allow me to elaborate. A lot of the cinematography and scenery is beautiful and the location shots are for the most part well done. The costumes and weapons look great and accurate. However, there are many parts I find laughable about this movie. For one, the character development is weak despite an attempt to tell a tale not known by many; that of the Navajo Code Talkers. Speaking of which, the non-Caucasian characters are barely gone into at all and very clichÃ©. The movie spends the majority of its focus on the mere gore of war, which definitely is a necessary factor in any movie about war. It maintains the sad realism of war, but this film relies on that alone and nothing else. To add to this Nicholas Cage makes sport out of the bloodiest conflicts of World War II by single-handedly wiping gout whole regiments of Japanese soldiers. When I watched it, I felt as if I was watching a Rambo film from the 80s. And I'm not talking the original "First Blood"; I'm talking the popular but incredibly unrealistic sequel which is probably the most popular.