While I had never heard about this 2024 war movie titled "Before Dawn", I must admit that I needed no persuasion to sit down and watch it on account of it being a war movie.
However, writers Jordon Prince-Wright and Jarrad Russell delivered a slow paced movie, so very, very slow. You have to sit through more than 60 minutes of the movie where nothing worthwhile really happens. So more than half of the movie was squandered on setting the stage and establishing characters, but not really succeeding in any great way of doing so. And that just didn't really pan out all that well in terms of providing proper entertainment for me.
I was not familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, but I will say that the acting performances were fair, despite the fact that the movie's script failed to get off to a proper running start.
Visually then "Before Dawn" was good, it definitely looked and felt like a war movie. Though it was a bit odd why all the trenches were so shallow that the soldiers had to constantly hunch over in order to move without being shot. There were some nice attention to details, and the uniforms were good.
I am sure that diehard war movie fans will enjoy "Before Dawn" a lot more than I did, especially if you don't mind a slow paced narrative that focuses on establishing characters.
While I managed to sit through 100 minutes that the movie ran for, director Jordon Prince-Wright didn't really manage to entertain me all that much. And this is definitely not a movie that I will ever return to watch a second time. I have to admit that I was definitely expecting a bit more action from a movie such as this, and it felt like it was a squandered opportunity to show some great trench warfare on the screen.
My rating of "Before Dawn" lands on a less than mediocre four out of ten stars.
Plot summary
Inspired by the real-life diary entries of local ANZACs, the feature film details the untold story of some of Australia’s greatest military victories.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
July 28, 2024 at 04:53 AM
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The pacing of the narrative killed the movie...
Why?
Why make yet another below average war movie? Why? I started watching it anyway and quickly noticed this was a cheap copycat, an inferior wannabe...
The bad: what's a war movie without spectacular fighting scenes? What? Well, not much! This movie just fails to ever become truly gripping or thrilling.
Beware: this is more a slowburning portrayal of soldiers having to endure the trenches than it is a tough war movie. But even at the dramatic scenes this move fails full stop. The actors are below average and so are their acting performances.
It isnt a terrible B-movie, they tried to make the best of the mediocre actors and the lack of money for photography and special effects. But in the end this movie is just going through the motions of yet another below average boring "war" movie...
Movie that portrays the horror of Australia's participation in WWI
We took my 14 year old son to see Before Dawn. He's become interested in military history and was keen to see it. It gave us all a lot to talk about. For a low budget film, they did a good job of expressing the horrors of the trenches and the harsh conditions in which Australian troops served. This is not a love story, and instead depicts the futility and filth, as well the courage and resilience. It shows the pointlessness of young Australians dying for a cause so far away from home. It's good to see young Australian talent - behind the lens and onscreen - and look forward to more of this genre. I would like to see more women involved in any future script from the producer to provide great gender balance.