Review of American Sniper (2014) by Matthew O — 05 Feb 2016

What I have come to expect with war films is that they often tell very important and interesting stories about the effects that war has on people whether the story is true or not, goes in very deep into the perspective of the character we focus on, and gives us a lot of suspense and thrills while still giving us the drama needed to keep it balanced. Some movies accomplish that really well (SAVING PRIVATE RYAN) and are among my favorite movies, while others don't (PEARL HARBOR) and are among my least favorites. With American Sniper, it fortunately goes down that path where I wanted it to go, but not everywhere. What AMERICAN SNIPER does well is keeping us interested in the story of Chris Kyle. Bradley Cooper's performance really helps keep that interest flowing throughout the film. We feel what the character is going through and we see how war has effected his life so much. Since this film is set in a war we of course expect a lot of that action, thrill, and suspense, and we get a lot of that. It's all really well done. But what the film doesn't have enough of is character development and emotion. The film seems to focus a little too much on Chris Kyle. I know that it's the person we're supposed to focus on, but I wanted to get to know more of some of the other characters like his friends and family. They're not fully developed and are not as interesting, and when something happens to them it's not as powerful and emotional as it could've been. While this film doesn't go everywhere I wanted it to go, especially since it's a genre that I hold a lot of interest in, it gave me enough story to keep me invested and it was overall satisfying enough for me.

Grade: B+.