While I am not a full-fledged historian, the absolute hell on earth that was The Great War has always had me with my ears perked up and at full attention and upon finding out there is going to be a big hollywood film on the topic I was more or less excited about it. Granted, I don't watch trailers so I didn't know what to expect, outside a WW1 war film.

The Good: The film really delivered when it comes to costume design, there was great attention to detail, albeit some pieces were anachronistic, but that is negligible. The lighting was great and in some scenes absolutely key, combined with the decent camera work and filming locations it shapes up as a very aesthetically pleasing film.

The Bad: I was really hoping for a more-or-less realistic depiction of WW1. Needless to say, this was NOT it. I am not one for gratuitous gore and guts, but it's hard to overstate how much of a Hieronymous Bosch-esque horror trench warfare in The Great War was and I was really hoping that would be featured in the film. It's obvious they tried to point that out, but it seemed extremely tame, both in scale and in intensity. The script is pretty basic, which in itself wouldn't be bad, however too many things just happen out of plot convenience which defeats the purpose of keeping the plot simple. Scenes just require a ridiculous amount of suspension of disbelief, especially when it comes to shootouts.

To those interested in learning about WW1: Dan Carlin's "Blueprint for Armageddon" does a fantastic job at providing both a very educational and (gruesomely) entertaining take on the war. Lengthy as it may be, I think every second of it is worth listening.