Despite the decline of quality that I've personally found in the Academy Awards, the show's impending arrival has still, as always, left me curious to see any of the Best Picture nominations that I can (which is worth a blog in itself but for another time). And of the films I haven't seen this year, I think the one that has called out to me the most is The Hurt Locker, which I've frequently seen spots for on TV with quotes such as "a near-perfect film." Now, claims like these tend to turn me off, but the film's synopsis did indicate potential and I finally succumbed to renting it tonight (along with Spaceballs for my Introduction to Theatre/Drama class).

What I can say after watching The Hurt Locker is that it's a surprisingly inconsistent film, but not necessarily in a way that refers to its quality. By this, I mean that it left an almost bipolar effect on me. I must have said "oh, ****" at least five times during the film aloud, but by the time it was over I was left at a loss of words. Another (more direct) way that film was uneven for me is that even though it really gripped me (loved the sniper scene), there were just as many points that it dragged out and I wished the runtime was at least a few minutes shorter.

Now, I heard a good amount of praise going towards the film but I refrained from reading any comments other than just one or two sentence summaries, all of which were good prior to going in. Afterwards, however, I came across an interesting scenario with several comments (I'm looking at YOU IMDB users) claiming the film is unrealistic, coming from individuals who claim to be veterans. Of course, I'm just your typical 20 year-old in college who hasn't the slightest idea of whether a film like this should be taken as realistic, so I'm not going to try and claim the film is or is not a good representation of what's happening in Iraq right now (or even five to six years ago). Then again, I'm one of the few who enjoyed and defends the first Alien vs. Predator movie despite its many flaws and holds the director's cut of Alien 3 in higher regards than all eight of the films between the franchises together, so I guess that shows my intelligence and credit as a critic.