I’m always tempted to say “i just don’t love war movies”, but stories are stories. I think it is usually necessary to have a sense of reaction and immediacy for films like this, and that obviously fades the further removed you are from the event. A film today would be hard pressed to capture the inherent anger of Come and See, or the chuckling contempt of Dr. Strangelove. These things make the film feel genuine and human. Of course there are exceptions, but it’s even harder when you have as broad of a message as All Quiet does. It makes its point in the first 15 minutes and proceeds to trek though pretty expected beats, which are watchable mostly because of great performances and technical prowess. I’m not against remakes as a concept, but something like this feels pristine and overly self aware to the point where it isn’t much more than an exercise in that technical proficiency, which is okay, but I’m not going to lend it any more than the filmmaker gives me. Left me with an empty feeling.