We had a good little thread on the C&R forum when it came out. My takeaway was, it was a good MOVIE but it was not All Quiet. There was less then zero development of the characters, to the point of who is Paul? Who was the guy in glasses? I had no investment in anything that happened to any of these people....we never knew them.
Another good example, really I think the perfect example is Band of Brothers and Pacific. BOB did so much better because the first several episodes was all character development, we know Winters all the way down to Shifty. All these people we knew at a glance. Pacific there was no build up. No follow them in boot camp no Sobel to hate. Part of this is how the series got made, BOB was really one book, pacific had several books all wadded up together and that was tough (The books by the Pacific authors are all fantastic and I strongly suggest reading them I read all but China Marine. Pacific fell a bit flat because we really did not have the same feeling to the people we watched on screen.
Same with this movie, I just did not care, but the effects, save recoil are pretty good. Opening 10 min is worth a watch at least.
