War Horse2011

67/100 Sure. My opinion on this movie is slightly positive, I guess. It sure did achieve emotional beats, the characters sure were well-written, they sure did say the title near the end. I don't know, with a movie this generic, I can only like it so much. Let's begin with the positives, with the most obvious first. John Williams' score is amazing. I've said it so many times recently and I'll say it again because this man never misses, and it's no different here, with a sweeping, majestic orchestral score. I also like the idea of us viewing World War I through a horse's eyes and think it's a very innovative approach. The movie doesn't really take full advantage of this, though, as we still follow people for most of the movie. I think the approach here is very mixed, though, and this is what leads to the bulk of my critiques for this movie. Writing-wise, it's a mess, as this horse changes hands faster than you can say "shared ownership", leaving us not a lot of time to connect with each character it meets and making the movie feel very episodic in its approach. The human characters also are written very simplistically, mostly sticking to broad archetypes such as the country bumpkin, the tough general and so on. We also have that trope where foreign characters speak English for the convenience of the audience and no other reason. However, I'm willing to tolerate this solely for the performance these actors are putting on, acting their life out for these characters. Jeremy Irvine in particular did a lot of work to make me like his character, and Niels Arestrup was great as the Grandfather. The movie's action is also weirdly great, better than most Spielberg films short of Jaws in my opinion, and very fun to watch, with a very frantic vibe to it. I particularly liked the first charge with Tom Hiddleston aboard the horse, if just for the visual of all the horses rising from the wheatfield. Overall, there's a lot to like about this film, way more than there is to hate, but there's still a ton of issues with it. Even when it's good, it feels safe, almost generic, in the same way that Oscar-bait often is. That doesn't change the fact I still like most of it, but it does affect my opinion that I think it's not good, and instead merely average overall.