Review of Blood Diamond (2006) by Adrian B — 30 Jun 2011

Though there are some weaknesses within the story of "Blood Diamond," there is still quite a bit to admire among the action, suspense, and realistic scenes within the movie. First of all, I strongly believe that violence imitated within the film was not reserved nor overblown. I sadly think it was very accurate. The attrocities of Sierra Leonne with the 1990's were bad enough make one of the worst nations on the globe (what is funny is to my understanding, it was not kicked out of the British Commonwealth). Second, among the violence is the suspense of plot and the viewer, at least I certainly didn't get bored during the sequences. Finally, the set pieces and cinematography are beautiful, especially the vast landscape of South Africa.

As I said there are a couple of weaknesses. One is that I consider is the fact that Leonard di Caprio's character had a South African accent. I don't why they simply did not deem him as American (since that is the nation he is from). Second, some of the dialogue and situations between Di Caprio and Jennifer Connelly are kind of lame and cliched. One instance was when they spent the night together, questioning whether or not there is a possible love between them. Not needed. Finally, although most of the special effects are exciting and well done, it sort of looked like it was heavily borrowed from Vietnam War epics, particularly "Platoon" and "Apocalypse Now!" This is may just me and it is not something to highly critisize, but seem almost like plagiarism. Thankfully they are overshadowed heavily by the positive aspects of this film. By the way, any type of human (man, woman, child) can be fatally caught in the brutal crossfires. Just a warning for readers.