Unbroken Review (2014)

Unbroken

  Okay, so this movie got a lot of mixed reviews and I wasn't sure why until I stepped into the theater to watch it myself. I'm going to start out with the things I really liked about the film. Number one being Jack O'Connell. If the Oscar competition for 2015 hadn't been so fierce, he might have found himself on the list of nominees. Director Angelina Jolie called O'Connell's acting style somewhat wild and unpredictable, which you can totally see in this film. He was really fun to watch and the supporting cast for the first hour and a half of the movie really did great as well. The cinematography was beautiful, particularly in the first scene in the fighter plane. It was shot in a way that made you feel like you were really there with them. Also the scenes in the lifeboat when they get stranded. Excellently shot! It was a really pretty movie to look at and I wish I had gotten to see it in the regular theater as apposed to the scratched up dollar theater screen. 

  The problem with this movie lies in the second half of it. There is so much story to get through that at points it does feel very long. Once Louis gets to the prisoner of war camp in Tokyo, the film starts to lose a bit of momentum. I think this has a lot to do with the supporting cast. In the beginning of the film, you really care about the people he's with (played by Domhnall Gleeson, Jai Courtney, and Finn Wittrock), but then things happen when they are no longer with Louis and we are introduced to a new supporting cast (Garret Hedlund and Takamasa Ishihara). Hedlund's character feels undeveloped while Takamasa (who is actually a singer, not an actor) feels somewhat miscast as The Bird (Louis antagonist). 

  While there are really powerful moments in the movie that really gripped me, there are also moments in the last half that don't punch the audience quite hard enough and at times is even underwhelming. Fortunetly, the powerful moments outweigh the underwhelming ones which is why I'll give Unbroken a 3.5 out of 5 stars. (Worth Ticket Price)