(SPOILER WARNING!!! This article does contain spoilers, if you haven’t seen the movie, just see the first paragraph to be informed without spoilers!!!)

Fury is a war movie that had some very intense and graphic war scenes. Although, it wasn’t really unique with a lot of cliches in war movie, however, the strong acting with this strong cast makes this movie a decent watch. Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Stars.

War movies is definitely a big genre in movies history. Usually they are the type of movies that really raises the bar in violence on the big screen. With war movies, they really want to make it as realistic as possible showing the true nature of what war is, and what the soldiers have to go through when they are in the battle field. There are many war movies that are really iconic like Apocalypse Now, Platoon, and The Hurt Locker. However, there is one war movie that really stands out to me and I believe it is the best war film up to date, and that is Saving Private Ryan. That movie really pushed the bar in making this movie so realistic in showing how war really is. That first battle scene in Normandy has to be one of the best and most bloody battle scenes I have ever seen. Honestly, no other war movie has come close in being a perfect war movie as Saving Private Ryan. At least some will try like this movie I’m about to talk about. I will start with what I like, to the so so, to what I didn’t like.

What I like, director David Ayer really painted a good picture of being a team driving a war tank during World War II. What I also liked is how he made the setting of the movie very gloomy and dark. In a war movie, it has to be gloomy and depressing, not fun and exciting. You get the impression that the soldiers are not really happy, and really, who in the right mind will be happy being in war. I researched that they used real World War II war tanks to film this movie. It really shows how cramped up being in a tank with give guys is. Very grueling, and probably the most unique part in this movie. The movie had its gory moments, but it wasn’t too much like Saving Private Ryan, but a good amount to give you that squeamish feeling. I mean what’s a war movie without their violent squeamish moments. This movie also had a strong cast and they delivered. Let’s start with Brad Pitt as Sergeant Don “Wardaddy” Collier. The leader of this tank crew.The movie introduced this character very cool, you see a German soldier riding a horse and then you see Collier jumping from his tank tackling the German soldier off his horse, and stabbing him repeatedly. He is a guy that will take risks, and pretty much keeps cool in his battle as a leader. They do show his war scars which shows why he is a respected leader. He has been in war for a long time and nothing fazes him. It’s just another day to lead his crew to fight and come back alive. Next you have the Technician Boyd “Bible” Swan played by Shia LeBeouf. He is definitely the spiritual leader of the group by giving his crew hope through his verses from the Bible. A guy like that has to have very strong faith to go through war and still believe in God. He is the one veteran soldier that really has a heart for good even though he kills people. The next soldier is PFC Grady “Coon-Ass” Travis played by Jon Bernthal. He is definitely the jerk of the crew. This guy will kill with no remorse, places blame on people when things go wrong, and take advantage of the innocent German girls in the city that they take over. Even though he was the jerk, he does show that he has a heart and really cares for his crew. The next soldier is Corporal Trini “Gordo” Garcia played by Michael Pena. I guess he was the extra flavor of the crew, meaning, he was the only non white guy in the group. His role was a little stereotypical for Mexicans, but not in a offensive manner (at least for me, but come on what Mexican says, “Chinga tu madre,” in World War II times). With that said, his role as a soldier is another solid fighter. He definitely is the goofball of the crew that likes to crack one liners and what not, but once things get real in battle, he’s the one that is ready for war. Lastly, you got Private Norman “Machine” Ellison played by Logan Lerman. He was the new guy to their crew after their last guy had his face blown off. He didn’t have too much war experience either which made the rest of the crew not like him and treating him as a rookie. His character reminds me of Private Henry Fleming in the book The Red Badge of Courage written by Stephen Crane. He was a coward at first, reluctant in shooting people which almost cost his crew’s lives. That leads to the scene where Sergeant Collier try to make him shoot a German soldier prisoner, but Private Ellison didn’t want to do it and rather quit. This infuriates Sergeant Collier even more and pretty much forced him to kill him much to the chagrin of Private Ellison. However, once that happened Private Ellison gets more comfortable with killing and really starts bonding with Sergeant Collier when they were at an apartment with two German ladies named Edith and Emma, played by Stella Stocker and Alicia Von Rittburg. Sergeant Collier really showed that he does have a heart after forcing Private Ellison to shoot a surrendering German soldier. He treated these girls with a lot of respect and have one of the girls for Private Ellison to have consensual relations with her. It was until the rest of the crew showed up where they really showed their true colors, Corporal Garcia was more goofy, Technician Swam showed how compassionate and emotional he is, and PFC Travis really showed how much of a jerk he really is. One thing about this crew is that they showed some true brotherhood between them, and how much time they have spent together to really look out for one another in this war. Probably the most powerful moment was when their tank broke down and realized that 200 German soldiers were coming their way. Sergeant Collier told them to flee and he will handle it, but Private Ellison who once was a weak coward says he is fighting with him. That made the rest of the crew come back and fight this uneven battle where the probability of getting killed is almost 100%. They fought valiantly and really put a humongous dent to the German soldiers. Unfortunately most of the soldiers did take their last breathes, and the last moment where Sergeant Collier was dying telling Private Ellison he is a true soldier and telling him about the bottom hatch for a chance for him to escape this alive.

The so so, even though I knew and predicted that somehow these soldiers will die and that the new guy in Private Ellisan will somehow survive and be a hero, I’m kind of glad it was him to live to tell about his war experience and how that crew were definitely genuine soldiers and a true meaning of brotherhood. He was a coward, but he became a brave respected soldier. Even though it was predictable.

What I didn’t like, for a war movie, they had their cliched moments. Starting with the characters you have the goofball, the rookie, the religious one, the jerk that everybody watching is glad that he dies, and the bad ass leader. I’ve seen those type of characters in past war movies before. The fact that everybody dies except for one cliche is a pretty old cliche. The soldier falling in love with a girl and she ends up dying cliche. Most of all, the surviving soldier that gets caught but was given grace by an enemy soldier was the one cliche that made me just shake my head. This movie was full of cliches, and that’s not a good thing. The movie at the beginning started off a little slow as well, but eventually it got going.

Overall, the movie is still a good watch if you are into war movies. It may have cliches and slow parts, but you can enjoy the blood and gore if you into to that stuff. As for me this movie doesn’t even come close to Saving Private Ryan, and quite honestly I don’t think that any war movie will in the near future!!! Final Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Stars