Review of War Horse (2011) by Triliana K — 12 Sep 2012

Even by Spielberg's standars, War Horse comes across as a relatively disappointing WW2 drama that is limited in its use of impressive sequences and is peppered with pointless scenarios that do not have any sense of being related to the plot.

The film is overlong by half an hour, which is usually fine for a war drama, but the development of the relationship between the horse and his owner is far too long and sort of gets to the point too quickly leaving us having to voew such a scenario that takes far too much time.

Other factors include the use of the German brothers' escape from the regiment and the storyline involving the farmer and his granddaughter comes across as an unneccesary sequence that for me does nopt have any reason within the story.

There are some good sequences though with a tense but enjoyable scene in which a British soldier and a German archrival shake off any bad blood and work together to free the trapped horse in the trenches, while the tracking shot of the horse running through the battlefield is one of Spielberg's most impressive shots.

Unfortunately, a severe lack of moments like this, requirements we shuld expect from Spielberg, are very limited and by the end, although the ending is what we want, it does feel as we have spent longer than we should have watching something that could have been made better.

Its far from a bad film but far from a great one so therefore, its a thumbs down which proves that Spielberg might have lost his once-indestructible touch.