Review of Unbroken (2014) by Mattbrady99 — 10 Mar 2015

If I Can Take It, I Can Make It. True words of wisdom right they.

Unbroken is a true story about a Olympian and war hero Louis "Louie" Zamperini played by (Jack O'Connell) who, along with two other crewmen, survived in a raft for 47 days after a near-fatal plane crash in WWII-only to be caught by the Japanese Navy and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp.

Unbroken is directed by the Oscar wining actress Angelina Jolie, and this isn't the first she directed a film, yeah she directed one Documentary I think and she also did a film called "In the Land of Blood and Honey", and what I heard these two films she did (Even the Documentary) was slammed and hated by everyone. I haven't really seen those two films (And I never will) but now she directs Unbroken and I can safely say that this movie was... okay. Not amazing. Not bad, just a simple okay. I know it's not very inspiring words "it's Okay", but I being really honest here. If you ask me in person what I thought of this movie, I will say "It's okay".

The Good: 2014 was the year for amazing cinematography and this movie has some gorgeous Cinematography. It's the same guy who did the Cinematography for Skyfall and this guy knows he to make my eyes melt every time I watch a film and his doing the Cinematography. There was many times where I said to myself "How the hell did there get that shot", I know they used CG for some parts but for the parts that they didn't was CG was truly Oscar worthy Cinematography.

Jack O'Connell is a true rising star so far in his career. In this movie he deliverers a fantastic and heart hitting performance and I like the fact that he showed all the pain, sadness and tiredness in his eyes in this movie, that made me feel sorry for this guy. Jack O'Connell played Louis Zamperinin so terrifically well that I wonder what else he's doing next after this because I what to see this guy in other films.

Now let's talk about Angelina Jolie taking the directors chair. I know for a fact that Jolie had full respect for Louis. I sawed it photos and interviews, how she looked up to this man has her inspiration, and she directed this movie pretty good if I must say. She didn't directed this movie in a way that it feels to much like a Hollywood cash grab, no I can look at this movie and call it a war film and that's that. Unbroken to me might be a step up from Jolie directing career. I would love to see more from her directing skills and I bet she got a lot of hate and that must be really hard for her, but Louis Zamperinin once said "Never give up. No matter what".

Now for the problems: Louis Zamperinin is a inspiring person who has been through hell most of his life and the fact that this guy kept going is truly remarkable, but in this movie he was just came off as a tough son of a b*tch and not really inspiring in a way that Louis was. The Prison camp in this movie wasn't really all that effective at all. Japanese prison in real life back then was a lot brutal and effectively shocking, but in this it wasn't and it would be more powerful if Louis stood out from the rest and became a leader to those jailed soldiers.

Overall Unbroken may have a lot of problems with it's pasting and slow scenes, but the movie has good directing, terrific performance from Jack O'Connell and beautifully Cinematography.