Fury (2014) Review

Review By Brandon Fu
Directed by David Ayer
Rated: R(for strong sequences of war violence, some grisly images, and language throughout)

Fury tells the story of a tank crew during WWII, and the experiences they have killing Nazis and leading troop movement during the war. The crew includes Brad Pitt, the captain, Michael Peña, the navigator, Shia LeBeouf, the religious guy, Jon Bernthal, the massive asshole, and Logan Lerman, the new guy.

Let's get this out of the way. The scenes in which there were tanks and they were fighting were actually super cool. Tracer shots, explosions, the whole lot. With all this violence comes gore. You actually see some pretty gruesome stuff, so this movie is not for the soft-stomached. The movie gives you a peak into the life of a WWII tank crew, with all the communication and camaraderie.

This movie is pretty much first day hazing for Lerman's character. In reality, the tank is just a box full of assholes who treat the young/new guy as shit, especially Jon Bernthal's character. In the end, they do accept him, but this movie probably lasts 1-2 days, so it doesn't really make sense to have a first day haze and then be all accepting the day after. The movie tries to make up shit treatment of its main character by having them say an inspiring quote or action, but it really doesn't shield the fact that the tank of soldiers is just a tank full of shitty, but responsible  people.

The acting performances were actually pretty good. Everybody was sellable as WWII vets, except for Lerman's character of course. Shia LeBeouf was actually pretty good, and if there was a role to redeem is horrible public image, it would be this one. But, there is one problem, and its the writing. Right in the middle of action, a random character will just start  monologuing and you wonder why they haven't been killed. It's those type of things that take you out of the movie and question the genuine quality of a movie. Another aspect of the movie that was bad was the pacing. IT IS HORRIBLE. If you watch this movie, and you get to around the middle, you will notice the movie hits you in the face with an overwhelmingly amount of SLOW. I swear to you I checked my watch three times during this part of the movie, only to realize that the one scene took up almost half the movie.

Overall, Fury is a well acted action movie that portrays a bunch of dicks that treat a new guy like crap. All the performances were on point, and they were actually really good in terms of making me believe that they were assholes. The big problems in this movie are the writing and pacing, as it takes you out of the movie experience by making you check your phone/watch and question the movie in general.

2.5/5