Cinematographically I get the praise. It's beautifully shot, but that shouldn't be enough to rely on though. I personally prefer some realism in a war movie. And that...well was quite hard to find in this one. When scene after scene unrealistic coincidences and occurances happened my mind was pretty much like "ehm...ok..." *frowning eyebrow* most of the time. The short (I'd almost say cameo) appearances of wellknown actors like Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch and Richard Madden were nice, but didn't really add much to the story either since none of them really had much screentime. I know the main protagonist from the movie Marrowbone, good actor. To see Tommen Baratheon...no just kidding, Dean-Charles Chapman as a corporal seemed a bit odd for some reason. Just not a chap you'd expect to see as a soldier in a war movie I guess. Funny though eventually Robb Stark (Richard Madden) turned out to be his brother lol.