Fury

Written and directed by David Ayer, Fury details the violent, perilous exploits of a six-man tank crew in the waning days of the Second World War. It’s rather surprising to note that filmmaker Ayer has infused Fury with the feel of an old-school war epic, as the movie is noticeably lacking in many of the elements with which Ayer and many of his contemporaries have been associated – including needlessly shaky camerawork and rapid-fire editing during action sequences. There is, as a result, little doubt that Fury generally comes off as a far more engaging and entertaining endeavor than one might’ve expected – particularly in light of Ayer’s disastrous previous effort, 2014’s Sabotage – and it’s clear that the film benefits substantially from the stellar work of its uniformly strong cast. Brad Pitt, cast as the aforementioned tank’s commander, delivers a stirring, often electrifying performance that remains a high point throughout, while the supporting cast, which includes Logan Lerman, Shia LaBeouf, and Jon Bernthal, effectively adds color and personality to the proceedings on a consistent basis. And although Ayer has peppered the narrative with a number of engrossing sequences – there is, for example, a tank battle that’s nothing short of electrifying – Fury suffers from an erratic sense of momentum that ultimately diminishes its overall impact. The rough-cut feel is especially prominent in an oddball, almost stand-alone interlude around the midway point detailing two soldiers’ encounter with a pair of German women, while the protracted finale, though sporadically exciting, ensures that the movie ends on a lamentably anticlimactic note – and yet, taken as a whole, it’s impossible to deny that Fury comes off as a better-than-average war flick that almost demands a viewing on as big a screen as possible.

*** out of ****