Today I will be giving two separate reviews on this movie. One as a soldier, and one as an everyday movie critic (otherwise known as the "real review").
A movie about military, for military
This movie will appeal to almost every single man, or woman in the military. There are certain scenes where they show the audience videos of Navy SEAL training, that really drive the point home on exactly how much of a mindset goes into these special force units. The characters seem to have an established, and noticeable camaraderie with one another that feels familiar to those of you who have experience with one another in any sort of field setting. There is familiar military terminology, that will relate to you all on either a cringe worthy level or a laughable level. You all will love it, and have a good time.
Final Verdict: See it in Theaters although I know (like every other military movie before this) you will find inaccuracies throughout the movie; I still think (with a service member as the target audience) it is well worth the price of admission.
Now that I said that.
A tumble down the hill... breaks no new ground.
Do you want to know why I decided to separate my review into two parts this go around? Because this movie put all Southern/Jewish mothers to shame by making me feel guilty at the end of it. Yes, I understand that it was paying respect to the soldiers who died on mission, but I just have to wonder why they spent ten minutes at the end trying to pay homage to these guys without spending more time on making the actual movie better.
So, let's go a little more in depth into this. The movie is about SEAL team 10, and a failed mission (called Operation Redwing) that lead to death of all of it's members except one (lone survivor is the title, not a spoiler). The movie starts out with some usual military lifestyle shenanigans (in order to make us feel for the characters more, before they start to get fucked up by Taliban), and then goes into the actual mission. It is a mission manned by four soldiers who you will get to know more than anyone else in the film: Marcus Luttrell (Mark Wahlberg), Michael Murphy (Taylor Kitsch), Danny Dietz (Emile Hirsch), and Matt "Axe" Axelson (Ben Foster). All seems to be going well for these men at first, they start setting up for their mission (trying to get communications up with their base); until, a trio of goat herders comes and discovers them up on the mountain ledge they have picked for recon. The trio is comprised of an old man, and two children, so the men have to deal with the morale quandary of whether they are going to kill these people (which is bad anyway you look at it) or let them go (in which case they will probably tell the taliban that they are up in the mountains). The leader listens to the little angel on his soldier (or pays attention to his Rules of Engagement classes) and lets them go, cancelling the mission. The boys run to tell the Taliban, and the soldiers are quickly caught up with, forcing them into a very one sided fire fight.
I think my main problem with this movie was the beginning. In the beginning we are told who the "Lone Survivor" is going to be, so there is really no mystery to exactly which one of these guys are going to get out of this alive. I know that anyone who actually did the research (or read the news articles pertaining to this particular event) would have known anyways, but I would have preferred for them to at least attempt a little more mystery. The story line is intriguing at some points, but falls flat at other points. An example of this: I liked the fact that the "none Taliban" locals helped this man, out of some cool code of conduct. I didn't like that the "Lone Survivor" title actually pertained to every character that the audience had longer than a couple of minutes to get to know. The other thing about this (story line wise) it didn't do anything that we haven't seen from any other military movie before. It was pretty cut and dry saying "these are military men. They are getting hurt. You should feel bad, and think about other military men that are getting hurt." I have all the respect in the world for my battle buddies who have seen combat (or really anyone who has seen combat), but this is kind of a grotesque form of "look at these men and feel bad for them, also give us money for the box office."
The acting was pretty standard across the board for every actor that was shown. Mark Wahlberg acted like Mark Wahlberg, same can be said for Taylor Kitsch and Ben Foster. The real stand out to me was Emile Hirsch, I know that seems a bit crazy since (of the four) he has the least impact on story line, but he just showed me another side of his acting I hadn't seen in other films. All of these men have done military films before. For Wahlberg it was Three Kings, for Foster it was The Messenger, for Kitsch it was Battleship, even Eric Bana (the commander of the men) had Black Hawk Down. What was Emile's resume comprised of? Speed Racer? The Girl Next Door? He was out of his element and performed very well for being so new to this style of movie.
I think the second biggest problem I had with this movie was the fact that it was basically a torture film. The first act of the movie was all getting to know the characters, the rest of the movie was these men going through a living hell of survival-style torture. Explosions, that mess up someone's face, or embed shrapnel deep inside someone's leg. What I'm sure will be considered "The infamous mountain falling scene." Riddling these men with more bullets and random injuries, that you are surprised that these men are still walking around after a while (especially "Axe").
Finally, the dialogue seemed random and weird throughout the action scenes. The main scene I am talking about is one where Axe goes on a killing rampage, and it just seems that they are making him say random cool stuff that can be quoted by people when they get out of the theater. None of what he is saying actually pertains to anything, or gives his character anymore depth.
Final Verdict: Rent it It wasn't a bad movie per say, it just could have been a lot better. If they saved the reveal of "who the Lone Survivor actually was" until the end, or even if they played around with the roles a little more. Maybe make Wahlberg have Foster's role so it doesn't seem like "Just another Wahlberg character." The action scenes are pretty intense, and even though it is a guilt trip you will like the homage to these soldiers.
So, let's go a little more in depth into this. The movie is about SEAL team 10, and a failed mission (called Operation Redwing) that lead to death of all of it's members except one (lone survivor is the title, not a spoiler). The movie starts out with some usual military lifestyle shenanigans (in order to make us feel for the characters more, before they start to get fucked up by Taliban), and then goes into the actual mission. It is a mission manned by four soldiers who you will get to know more than anyone else in the film: Marcus Luttrell (Mark Wahlberg), Michael Murphy (Taylor Kitsch), Danny Dietz (Emile Hirsch), and Matt "Axe" Axelson (Ben Foster). All seems to be going well for these men at first, they start setting up for their mission (trying to get communications up with their base); until, a trio of goat herders comes and discovers them up on the mountain ledge they have picked for recon. The trio is comprised of an old man, and two children, so the men have to deal with the morale quandary of whether they are going to kill these people (which is bad anyway you look at it) or let them go (in which case they will probably tell the taliban that they are up in the mountains). The leader listens to the little angel on his soldier (or pays attention to his Rules of Engagement classes) and lets them go, cancelling the mission. The boys run to tell the Taliban, and the soldiers are quickly caught up with, forcing them into a very one sided fire fight.
I think my main problem with this movie was the beginning. In the beginning we are told who the "Lone Survivor" is going to be, so there is really no mystery to exactly which one of these guys are going to get out of this alive. I know that anyone who actually did the research (or read the news articles pertaining to this particular event) would have known anyways, but I would have preferred for them to at least attempt a little more mystery. The story line is intriguing at some points, but falls flat at other points. An example of this: I liked the fact that the "none Taliban" locals helped this man, out of some cool code of conduct. I didn't like that the "Lone Survivor" title actually pertained to every character that the audience had longer than a couple of minutes to get to know. The other thing about this (story line wise) it didn't do anything that we haven't seen from any other military movie before. It was pretty cut and dry saying "these are military men. They are getting hurt. You should feel bad, and think about other military men that are getting hurt." I have all the respect in the world for my battle buddies who have seen combat (or really anyone who has seen combat), but this is kind of a grotesque form of "look at these men and feel bad for them, also give us money for the box office."
The acting was pretty standard across the board for every actor that was shown. Mark Wahlberg acted like Mark Wahlberg, same can be said for Taylor Kitsch and Ben Foster. The real stand out to me was Emile Hirsch, I know that seems a bit crazy since (of the four) he has the least impact on story line, but he just showed me another side of his acting I hadn't seen in other films. All of these men have done military films before. For Wahlberg it was Three Kings, for Foster it was The Messenger, for Kitsch it was Battleship, even Eric Bana (the commander of the men) had Black Hawk Down. What was Emile's resume comprised of? Speed Racer? The Girl Next Door? He was out of his element and performed very well for being so new to this style of movie.
I think the second biggest problem I had with this movie was the fact that it was basically a torture film. The first act of the movie was all getting to know the characters, the rest of the movie was these men going through a living hell of survival-style torture. Explosions, that mess up someone's face, or embed shrapnel deep inside someone's leg. What I'm sure will be considered "The infamous mountain falling scene." Riddling these men with more bullets and random injuries, that you are surprised that these men are still walking around after a while (especially "Axe").Finally, the dialogue seemed random and weird throughout the action scenes. The main scene I am talking about is one where Axe goes on a killing rampage, and it just seems that they are making him say random cool stuff that can be quoted by people when they get out of the theater. None of what he is saying actually pertains to anything, or gives his character anymore depth.
Final Verdict: Rent it It wasn't a bad movie per say, it just could have been a lot better. If they saved the reveal of "who the Lone Survivor actually was" until the end, or even if they played around with the roles a little more. Maybe make Wahlberg have Foster's role so it doesn't seem like "Just another Wahlberg character." The action scenes are pretty intense, and even though it is a guilt trip you will like the homage to these soldiers.
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