Review of Fury (2014) by Ken D — 07 Nov 2015

This was a fantastic war film. Fury is David Ayer doing what he's good at, investing the audience into his movies and making you think. Fury portrays a veteren tank crew during the last Allied push into Germany during WWII. Each soldier is a hardened vet, and a final dynamic is established when a fresh-faced recruit replaced a dead squadmate. The movie does a great job of showing the grey in war, how there are monsters on both sides despite being only from an American POV.

The cast is exceptional. Pitt makes you forget that he usually excells at a more pretty-boy role. Shia LaBeouf gets rid of the belief that he has no acting ability with a fantastic performance. Pena and Bernthal follow suit. Lerman is just as good as the kid who's out of his element and just wants to make it through.

The film was extremely well done, but there were some gripes. A con I had with it was how I didn't find a character I liked very much at all. Each guy (except Lerman) was a giant A-hole, and Lerman's character was a coward, and a somewhat illogical one at that. I also had a small issue with Ayer's attempt at establishing a touch of romance between Lerman and Alicia Rittberg. It was too fast and definitely felt contrived, though he succeeded in still striking an emotional chord with the scene.

Overall I can't say its the best war film I have ever seen, but its by far one of the best since this decade started. With a great cast and solid plot, Fury doesn't do much wrong.