1917

As a genre piece, I think it's really interesting -- well made and immersive. But as a kind of emotional movie that really pulled me in, I don't know if it did that.

It's an immersive, visceral and meticulously crafted film that has the emotional stakes to match.

The film dazzles at each step, one encounter and adventure after another shot like a set piece, complete in itself with MacKay's stoic presence adding to the pathos and poignancy.

The film is thrilling, moving on effectively from one shocking set piece to another, studding the narrative too with starry cameos.

It's a tense, unnerving ride that accomplishes its goal of translating the first-person experience of war better than any war movies that have come before it. It's a level up.

Technical brio, however, cannot redeem all that is callow and crass in Mendes's movie: the dialogue is pure placeholder stuffing, the approach a clumsy collision of the Assassin's Creed video games and Elem Klimov's Come and See...

The power of 1917 lies in its ability to tell a human story of a single mission and translate that into an account that encompasses the brutality of trench warfare.

Edited to look like one continuous shot, 1917 is a mind-blowing technical achievement, elevated by Roger Deakins’ jaw-dropping cinematography, Thomas Newman’s emotionally powerful score, Sam Mendes' impeccable directing, and Lee Smith’s seamless editing.

Without a doubt, 1917 is technically brilliant, visually stunning, and occasionally moving. If not for its lack of fully realized characters and a deeper story, it might have been a masterpiece.

With a fresh, new approach, Mendes memorializes not only his grandfather, but all the brave soldiers of WWI, reminding viewers of the individual tragedies that comprise warfare.