The Monuments Men (2014) Directed by George Clooney

Really don't feel the need to be very negative about this movie, since it isn't a terrible one. It just happens to be one that's not doing everything in the best or most interesting way imaginable.

It sounds like a great and very intriguing movie and even way before its release there already was a lot of Oscar buzz about it, also due to all of the well known and much liked people involved with it. Well, all of that has calmed down now and it's not very hard to see why. This ultimately is a forgettable movie, that fails to make any sort of impact.

The most disappointing thing for me about this movie was that this is a very flat one. It's hard to ever feel involved with any of the characters, due to the movie its poor character development and the story doesn't work out as anything all that interesting, due to a lack of certain depth.

There is not a clear main storyline or 'goal', so to speak, in this movie. It's about finding and reclaiming stolen Nazi art in war-struck Europe but there for instance is not one main thing they are after. This movie really could have used something like this, in order to work out as a better focused and more streamlined movie. The movie now instead is having far too many, seemingly needless, distractions in it (yes, I'm looking at you Cate Blanchett). The one moment the movie is about one thing, the next it's about a totally different thing and after that about something else again, and so on and so on. Maybe it still could have worked out if the movie taught us about- and showed us the beauty and importance of art. But no, all of the art in this movie is pretty much treated like a bunch of ordinary objects that hardly ever gets talked about, which is part of the reason too why this movie feels like a very flat one.

It's also weird to see how the movie on the one hand is absolutely glorifying the 'monuments men' and almost turns them into heroes at times but on the other hand it's also a movie filled with lots of goofy moments and comedy in it, which downplays the importance of the characters and their actions. It's a combination of different styles that really don't work out well together, for this particular movie. It's as if the movie was afraid to ever become a too serious one with anything, which is a real shame, as well as a missed opportunity.

But I wouldn't exactly call the movie a very entertaining one either. Other than being goofy and comical at times, it isn't really telling its story in a very fun or adventurous way either. I strongly feel that this movie either should have been a completely serious and dramatic one or a more fun and lighthearted type of movie. Instead, the movie now is being a bit of both but like I said, it doesn't go well together.

And not even all of the fine actors in this movie could prevent that their characters were nothing but a bunch of shallow and one dimensional ones, that we get to know absolutely nothing about. They are only distinctive and easy to tell apart from each other due to the fact that they are played by some well known actors. But other than that, they are really interchangeable with each other and perhaps it's also simply true that the movie is focusing on a bit too many of them. But having said all of that; there still isn't an awful lot wrong with any of the acting in the movie. George Clooney and Matt Damon were especially good, while John Goodman and Bill Murray were sort of wasted.

On a more positive note again; it's a fine looking movie, with some great cinematography and wonderful looking sets. Even though it's not filled with any action, it still feels and looks like a true and typical war movie. It's a very authentic looking movie but looks, as this movie also shows, of course aren't just everything.

It's not a bad movie but still one that's filled with lots of wasted potential, which makes this ultimately a forgettable as well as a somewhat disappointing movie to watch.

6/10

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