Good start, but then it gets ruined

Don't Believe the Hype

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

To be fair the movie has TREMENDOUS atmosphere, and the acting is very believable both from the French Troops cast, and the Taliban. The story, however, is incoherent in the extreme, to the point of nonsensical. A bit like (Kubrick) The Shining , or Event Horizon, the print as delivered makes no sense. Possibly bad editing, or just a bad screenplay.

I liked the premise for this movie of a captain's men going missing while under his leadership in the mountains of Afghanistan. I mistakenly thought it would be along the lines of Predator but it was more along the lines of Winnie the Pooh Gets Laid! I was hoping and praying that Arnie would arrive in a chopper and blow the cast away, but sadly this was wishful thinking. It is a highly pretentious movie that tries to be deep and meaningful but turns out to be shallow and deeply hollow. It leaves you with an empty feeling and that it has tried but miserably failed at being suspenseful and gripping. A dreadful movie that some idiots threw money at. Total rubbish! Don't believe me? Watch it and waste 105 minutes where you could have nipped out for a good DVD. I gave it 2 stars, one of which was for the scenery and acting.

The movie narrates the story of the mystery disappearance of four members of a french army platoon settled in Afghanistan. Even though the characters end up figuring out in what conditions those disappearances occur, the reasons of it remains totally unknown. The viewers are invited to make their own explanation regarding these reasons. Here's mine:The fact the reasons remain unknown is actually the reason itself.At first glance the scenario unfolds like an x-files episode, but it's actually nothing more than a psychological analysis and illustration of what the soldiers have in mind when a teammate falls: it tears apart everything that justifies their attendance to this war. This dead- end tends to bend their mind to the spiritual explanation: since nothing rational explains why a human has killed another human, then it's god's will. The movie doesn't promote any kind of religion, especially as we'll see the same behavior from both Talibans and french soldiers. It's all about highlighting their fatality feeling and inability to admit this war has no reason to be.The actors are brilliant, every details in the scenario and the picture make it look extremely real, and yet doesn't fall into a false documentary genre. We're immersed to the point we feel like we're simply living it.

It could be a mix of DJINNS and PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK. It also could be influenced by all those horror military outpost stories that were shown several years ago, and which even continue now. Tales involving lost platoons in the middle of nowhere, in the desert or all kinds of wilderness, lost patrol who had to fight against an invisible unknown evil. This feature is very realistic and carried by a solid acting too. Characters are convincing. But no gore sequences here. And I will also emphasize on the eerie atmosphere, weird, especially the scene where the group of soldiers try to catch the evil spirit who abducted some of their men...Their fellow comrades. Jérémie Rénier plays here the chief of those men. Remember, he also played a soldier in LE GRAND HOMME, last year.Worth watching.