Let me preface this by saying I am a two time Iraq war veteran (infantry), so my experience with the movie will be different from others.

I found the characters to be compelling, interesting, and complex, and their interactions with each other to be well done. However, I found the plot which creates those interactions to be absolutely preposterous. They put the characters into situations that no Army unit would ever be put in, ever. I have a great deal of respect for the soldiers of EOD, as their jobs are incredibly stressful in regards to the risk of secondary IEDs (that were not found), ambushes, and their never ending work load. However, I am sorry to say that in Iraq, they do not generally defuse bombs. They simply blow them up, with robots and a lot of C4.

Surprisingly, I think this movie had some of the best Iraqi city sets that I've ever seen, and they rang very true to life for me. Unfortunately, virtually every plot point just screamed fake.

There are certainly very real, very compelling stories that realistically portray the Iraq war (such as Generation Kill). The Hurt Locker however, was not one of them. My only hope is that people do not watch this movie and think that being deployed, or even being deployed as a member EOD is in any way, shape, or form similar to this movie.