Review of The Hurt Locker (2008) by Mikael H — 20 Jan 2013

Over-rated is good word for this. The themes of dehumanization and alienation will be found in any war-drama, like All Quiet on the Western Front, Deer Hunter, Platoon and Saving Private Ryan, so it's really hard to do anything new and compelling.

The Hurt Locker tries by giving us the perspective from a bomb removal unit, instead of the usual old infantry ground-pounder stuff. While I appreciate that, there are also too many flaws for the movie to draw me in, including characters acting in such a strikingly unprofessional way as to undermine my suspension of disbelief, downright cliché that are masked but not as cleverly as the director thought (yes, the Americans just has to save those Brits, huh?) and the eternally annoying shaken-camera style and fast editing that is supposed to mimic documentary-style work, but only serves to chop the narrative up and make it really hard to follow what is happening during the action scenes.