The Hurt Locker...Not Painful but Not Best Picture

So I've done it!  I have watched the first of many movies to come for this blog challenge.  The Hurt Locker seemed like the obvious place to start since it just won the Best Picture Oscar.  When it was announced as best picture I immediately thought really?  I mean I had heard good things but I had seen Avatar and I thought that it was an incredibly well made and enjoyable movie (it hurts me to say this because I think James Cameron is kind of a tool but gotta be honest).  However, I decided to reserve judgment since I had not yet seen The Hurt Locker.

Guess what? I have now seen it and I still think that Avatar got robbed.   There was a lot of talk in the press about how this was a David v. Goliath battle, and while I typically root for the underdog, this was the rare case where I think Goliath (a.k.a. Avatar) should have come out on top.  First of all, I will say that I am kind of biased against war movies just because there are so many of them out there and they all seem to say the same thing.  We get it...war is hell.  That being said I definitely went into the movie with an open mind and I did think that it was a good movie just not the best movie of 2009. 

The movie is intense and gripping and it seems to realistically portray what bomb diffusers go through on a daily basis.  Great scenes throughout the movie like when James takes out the bomb from that kid's chest or when he follows a wire and discovers its attached to like 8 different bombs.  And while the bomb diffusing scenes were filled with tension, I sometimes felt that they were a bit slow and needed to be moved along.  The one scene that I thought was terrifically detailed and riveting was the scene where James and Co. are in a shooting standoff with the Iraqi's in the shack.  That scene vividly showed how much focus is needed to target and fire a gun (the flies buzzing in their face would have totally broken my concentration but didn't phase them).  Overall this was a compelling war movie and it was also really well acted.  However, it didn’t get far enough beneath the characters’ skin for me to fully invest in their “war is a drug and we are addicted” dilemma.  I just didn't care that much. 

So bottom line, The Hurt Locker is a good movie but I still liked Avatar better and stick by my initial thought that it should have won best picture.  Just my opinion...take it or leave it.