lil_moe Review of Sand Castle

Sand Castle (2017)

Watch it only if you like Hoult, Cavill or the amazing Marshall-Green

[21 March 2021]

Otherwise, don't. Another modern war flick riddled with characters that talk and act just every inch as you'd expect them - from other war flicks. I have a feeling they wanted to make a movie that was both a powerful blockbuster (Cavill as an alpha-type special forces squad leader is certain to draw in the masse) and art house (Hoult as the fragile intelligent boy/man who keeps questioning the army and war). Throw in a bunch of other characters who fit every war film cliche, dialogue that you'd hear only in movies, military gear and tactics that even I, a civilian with below average interest in military, could tell were fake and violà you have Sand Castle. It seems the movie makers were trying to push an agenda (war is bad - Iraqis are ungrateful miscreants - G. I. Joes are nothing but potentially unsung heroes thrown into a bad situation and trying to make the best out of it). I'm all for a good war film and I practically idolize Cavill for his portrayal of the Man of Steel but you seriously have to do better than a beaten run of the mill battlefield comradery story with characters that are paper thin. I expected better from Hoult. 5/10 for decent action scenes and effects.