Fury (Cinema Screening)

(Spoilers)

Fury was easily one of my most anticipated movies for 2014, in the recent weeks leading up to its release my level of excitement has just steadily increased. War movies are generally a genre that I enjoy and with a strong cast with a couple of my favourite actors it was only natural that I couldn’t wait for this one.

The comments I had heard about this film were mixed, however the biggest and most common issue raised was the level of violence. Yes, there is a lot of violence and gore in this movie and at times it is incredibly explicit. However this is a film about war, although I can’t say with any authority I imagine that this is just quite an accurate portrayal of war and its results, so whilst some may say that there was no need for this gore I actually think there was as it made the film more realistic and accurate to history. The levels of gore were similar to that of Saving Private Ryan, possibly a bit worse on a couple of occasions, but overall I would say they were similar. The cause of much of this gore was some pretty awesome action sequences, I was really impressed here. The fact that this film follows the crew of a tank meant that the sequences focused in on the action regarding the tanks. This was a nice change as usually in war films it is just the soldiers on foot that get followed. These scenes were well shot and worked well with the combination of just how great t the film looked, however one thing that puzzled me slightly was the green and red laser beam looking shots during these scenes. I’m not sure if this is what they would actually look like but it is the first time I have seen anything like it in a war film, it all felt a bit Star Wars!

The cast in this film were just unreal, all five of the main characters performed so well and brought their characters to life so well. Logan Lerman has impressed me in The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Noah and subsequently has become one of my favourite actors, he does the same here. Giving his best performance of his career so far. Brad Pitt is as dependable as ever and plays his character with confidence brings that presence to the the screen that maybe other actors couldn’t deliver. Even Shia LaBeouf manages to shake off his annoying Transformers traits to show that he is actually a fantastic actor. Michael Pena and Jon Bernthal both contribute perfectly as well making the cast rock solid and effortlessly impressive. The characters in this film are great, within this one tank there is a variety of characters and the film explores each of them in varying detail. Each character takes a journey in this film, most obviously would be Lerman’s character Norman. However each character displays various traits throughout the movie and although some of these aren’t favourable, by the end of the film you end up liking each of them and they make up such a great collection of personalities.

Fury is another war classic to add to the genre, for the majority of the film it was hard to tell what way most scenes were going to go and with several surprises along the way this film kept you on the edge of your seat. It was a pleasure to watch these characters develop and interact with each other. Much of this was made possible by the wonderful cast, especially Pitt, Lerman and LaBeouf. The action scenes fill in the gaps and should keep any fan of this genre entertained. Fury ends up being one of the best films of the year so far.

BIGGEST FLAW – Laser beam looking shots

BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT – Cast’s perfromances

Rating – 9/10