Review of War Horse (2011) by Panderson1988 — 07 Feb 2012

Personally I enjoyed the movie, but there were a couple of things that irk me. The first 40 minutes of the movie when the boy is connecting with the horse is very cliche. The sunlight is absolutely perfect, they are literally glowing out there, and etc... I didn't mind him training the horse and so forth, but the way it was done was so cliche. At least in Seabiscuit when they connected with the horse, it wasn't always done with the perfect sunlight and countryside. Once the horse get sold off for the war, then the movie really picks up and gets good. I'm not going to spoil the story, but the war and action scenes were well done. The horse's story and characters it deals with were more interesting than the boy was in the beginning. If you can get past the fluff that takes place early in the movie, it really picks up and literally becomes a movie geared towards adults. People die from gun fire, there is mustard gas, no-man's land is dark and gritty, and etc...

If you think you'll enjoy the war scenes, then it is definitely worth checking out. I hope Steven Spielberg one day makes a true World War 1 centric movie similar to Saving Private Ryan. I like Spielberg's work when it comes to historical fiction, especially with war time stories.