The premise is really cool, and the guttural main music theme was cool too. The action, though unnecessary excessive at certain points, was great as expected. The idea of having the protagonist, Aatami, only speak at the end was a good choice too. But in many ways the film fell annoying short.
There are many glaring goofs that greatly annoyed me (I'll leave that for the end), but the biggest grievance of is note is the portrayal of the Nazis, and the buildup of Sisu, or lack thereof. While the first chapter of the movie properly hints at Aatami's background, the movie does little to build up his legend until nearly halfway through the film. Meanwhile it's hard to fear or hate the Nazis, or even care that they're there. They don't seem human, and the director takes for granted that it's antagonists being Nazis should be inherently hated by the audience. In reality the director gets lazy, and does the absolute bear minimum to make us to identify the Germans as the antagonists. Again, they are Nazis (SS troops even!) so shouldn't that mean they are automatically the antagonists? Sure, but that doesn't mean the director could do a little more to make us hate the villains more so that Aatami's fight with them becomes more personal and vindicated. The villains also routinely make dumb mistakes, mistakes of that the fearsome and elite SS troops would never make, such as at the river, Wolf's inability to hit a single target with his sniper unless it's another Nazi, sending troops into the minefield instead of letting the dust settle and failing to properly ensure Aatami's death despite being well aware of the threat he poses (later explained at the bottom of the review). I also believe there was a huge missed opportunity with Bruno, the tank commander. I'm not sure if this was because of the actor or the director, but Bruno seems quite controlled of his emotions, or at least detached. This is understandable, as he believes the war is futile. But if he was more vocally emotional, I believe it would have made the final fight between him and Aatami more punctuated (but it was pretty awesome).
Finally I think the movie struggles to properly build towards "the Sisu." We are left to assume that Aatami has reached a point of anger, but is not properly explained until almost halfway through the movie. Having a better buildup at the beginning of the film would have made me and other audience members more invested into Aaatami's vengeance rather than seeing it as a simple Nazi-bash film.
Look, I did enjoy the film. There were lots that I really, really liked. But I personally struggled to look beyond its faults. If you just want action to to see some Nazis killed, this is a great choice. Just don't come for the plot.
The most notable goofs to me:
-The German tank is actually a Soviet tank that wasn't first produced until 1948.
-Most of the Germans are wearing additional clothing to brace the harsh winds of the barren territory of Lapland, but Wolf and Bruno seem content wearing less layers than are standard issue. Guess they've been in Lapland or Norway for a while?
-During one scene Aatami used the body of a dead Nazi to protect him from incoming fire as he runs away from the tank. However, the bullets from the MG on top of that tank that hit the human shield were high-caliber and should have easily ripped through the body to hit Aatami.
-The Nazis, despite being established as an SS squad and therefore likely elite, struggle to hit Aatami when he runs in a straight line.
-Despite being an elite execution squad, the Nazis somehow forget that it's important for the victim of the noose stands on a box that is then taken from under him/her so that when he/she falls the neck is broken by the noose.
-For some reason the tank is at or near the rear of the SS convoy, contradictory to the whole point of having a freaking tank in a convoy.
-In the final chapter, the motorcycle finds itself at the back the convoy (despite usually being used for the reconnaissance purposes but whatever, not a huge deal) after being at the front for the whole movie. They also seem to to have lagged way behind from the convoy without explanation despite being the fastest vehicle of the bunch, as if to magically give space to the fight between Wolf and Aatami.
-The truck driven by the previously-bondaged was at the front of the convoy, but at the end of the scene the females arrive at a beaten wolf from the end of the convoy. Did the truck turn around? Probably, but it would have been nice to know.
-The plane in the final scene does not pull in its wheels after liftoff without explanation.
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