Movie Review: Fury (2014) - I'm drawing a blank when it comes to a joke for this.

(Potentially Minor Spoilers Ahead)

Man the theatre was packed for this one. It’s like Fury was one of the few films to have a decent marketing campaign recently. I really can’t blame them though (really though what is there to blame) aside from a somewhat decent summer season 2014 overall has been not a great year for movies. It hasn’t been bad though, more around mediocre I think, although some people might call it just slow. We did have the slowest box office since 9/11 this year though so there is some merit to that. Anyways getting to the point of the article, let’s review Fury

Plot Summary – Our story begins in April 1945, the last month of fighting in Europe during the Second World War, as we follow a 2^nd armored division sergeant nicknamed Wardaddy (Brad Pitt) after a battle where he has lost one of his crew members. The replacement, Private Norman Ellison (Logan Lerman), arrives and tells the Sergeant not only has he only been in the army eight weeks, but he was trained as a typist and was mostly likely sent there by mistake. After some trial by fire while taking a town, the crew is assigned to hold a crossroad to prevent a German SS battalion from attacking their supply lines.

Pros – The cinematography first and foremost is damn near perfect aside from some hard to see moments, as Fury tries to paint a more brutal version of the war in both detail and story (including one moment where we see a body that has been run over by tanks so many times he is literally flat as paper.) It doesn’t hold back on the horrors of war angle either, as it’s not trying to paint anyone as too much of a hero, and it’s full of these moments were you really have to question just what the hell is happening in front of you. The whole thing is done well by an excellent cast, including Lerman who we follow throughout most of the movie.

Cons – You can kind of sense that this film is trying to be this generations Saving Private Ryan, but it really doesn’t pull it off 100%. Whereas Saving Private Ryan had moments of brutality followed by really emotional moments, since Fury is trying to be more brutal than Ryan the emotional moments tend to fall flat more often than not, including a few that are supposed to be the most important of the movie. Also, at 2h 15m, while the movie doesn’t feel long, it also doesn’t feel like there’s much behind it, making it feel shorter than it actually is.

Final Score – 8/10

It’s not the grandmaster piece it’s clearly trying to be, but it’s a refreshing take on the horrors of war in a time where I think most of us are just pretty sick of the concept. If you’re looking for a more heroes in the line of duty type thing I’d recommend Saving Private Ryan over this.

Now I didn’t get a chance to see The Book of Life today, but I am going to try and see it on Sunday after work (which will be at the theatre closest to me luckily enough.)

So until then, I’ll see you guys at the movies.