Title: Fury
Director: David Ayer
Screenwriter: David Ayer
Starring: Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman
Genre: War, Action, Drama
Release Date: 22nd October 2014 (UK)
Trailer:
Rating:
Review:
In the past I haven't been a massive fan of war films, but something about this film caught my attention. So I managed to convince my sister to come see it with me and off we went. Now firstly I didn't go into this film thinking it was going to be awesome and one of my favourites of the year, I got exactly what I thought I would. A better than average war film, with pretty stellar acting and well paced action sequences.
The performances in this film really were superb. Logan Lerman definitely impressed me most, his character goes through a massive change over the course of the film and he does so without losing any of his original essence or making it look too sudden. Brad Pitt leads the film really well also; his character isn't the most likeable out there but even from an audience perspective you respect him the way his soldiers do and Pitt makes his courage quite admirable. Unfortunately the rest of the five leads are restricted to basic archetypes that are less than memorable. And beyond Lerman's character no time is spared for any of them to undergo any real development, which really disappointed me.
One thing I was wary about going into this film was the action sequences. I have a tendency to get really bored during them unless they're really well shot and paced. Luckily they did really well with these. They were exciting enough to keep the tension running, yet they didn't get ahead of themselves so it dragged on and felt like a never ending parade of gunfire and explosions. I mean if you ignore the weird bullets that looked suspiciously like they were taken straight from Star Wars. But moving on, I genuinely did love the fight scenes especially the last one which was so perfectly played out with the right tone and the music to boot which really amped up the atmosphere.
And while the pacing in the action scenes was unusually on par, the scenes in between...well not so much. They dragged on to the point where they felt pretty useless, despite the small role they did play in the advancement of the plot. Normally when I watch films in cinemas I get absorbed to the point where I forget I'm actually in a cinema. But during this 'in between' scenes I found myself looking around, completely disinterested and distracted. Not at all what I wanted.
Still these lows were evened out by the highs; the excellent performances and well choreographed action scenes. It was a highly entertaining watch, and during the later half an emotionally charged piece that made me almost forget about the previously boring moments. It's not a masterpiece but it's decent and if you're into war films then it's definitely something you'll like. But beyond that I would recommend it but I wouldn't call it a must-see.
