I will try to be vague regarding specific plot points, so as not to spoil any surprises, but there really aren't any big plot twists in the movie to begin with. Kate Mara did a good job as the protagonist. I found her portrayal of a Marine K9 handler to be believable. What I found interesting was that the story did not paint the real Megan Leavey in a very complimentary light. The writer's goal might have been to make Leavey out to be a war hero who was driven by the bond with her canine partner, but instead, I came away with the feeling that she was a self-centered, immature handler.
The firefight seemed believable, but a question I'd like to ask some of my coworkers, who were Marines, is how realistic it would be for a squad/ platoon with two up-armored Humvees, with crew served weapons, to run from a fight against 4 or 5 enemy armed with AK's and an RPG? They definitely didn't employ the "Four F's" (Find, Fix, Flank, F...). In the movie Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, there is a far more believable scene depicting a small Marine unit's contact with the enemy. The Marines aggressed the target and overcame the opposition. Maybe the firefight scene in Megan Leavey was based very closely on how it actually went down...but if that's the case, it would surprise me. A bunch of Marines running from contact with a handful of guys who had nothing but a few dirt berms for cover just didn't have a ring of truth to it for me.
I would assume the producers of Megan Leavey had technical advisers. If that was the case, there were a lot of dog handling, and dog training errors. Maybe it was due to poor movie direction, or maybe due to having an actress who is not an actual handler, or maybe Leavey wasn't that great a handler. It could be any number of reasons. But from the perspective of someone who was a K9 handler for 6 years, the character did many things through the movie that had me scratching my head...I mean totally rookie mistakes...and the result was a less believable movie in those areas.
In closing, I would like to have given the movie a 7, as it provoked a lot of emotional reaction in me (fancy way for saying my eyes were not always dry). But in retrospect, I think a lot of that was due to knowing first hand the bond that a handler and their partner form. My guy saved my life and the lives of others as well, so some scenes were quite emotional. The reason I had to lower my rating to a 6 is that I think without my personal background on the subject, some of those scenes were a little too wooden.
The firefight seemed believable, but a question I'd like to ask some of my coworkers, who were Marines, is how realistic it would be for a squad/ platoon with two up-armored Humvees, with crew served weapons, to run from a fight against 4 or 5 enemy armed with AK's and an RPG? They definitely didn't employ the "Four F's" (Find, Fix, Flank, F...). In the movie Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, there is a far more believable scene depicting a small Marine unit's contact with the enemy. The Marines aggressed the target and overcame the opposition. Maybe the firefight scene in Megan Leavey was based very closely on how it actually went down...but if that's the case, it would surprise me. A bunch of Marines running from contact with a handful of guys who had nothing but a few dirt berms for cover just didn't have a ring of truth to it for me.
I would assume the producers of Megan Leavey had technical advisers. If that was the case, there were a lot of dog handling, and dog training errors. Maybe it was due to poor movie direction, or maybe due to having an actress who is not an actual handler, or maybe Leavey wasn't that great a handler. It could be any number of reasons. But from the perspective of someone who was a K9 handler for 6 years, the character did many things through the movie that had me scratching my head...I mean totally rookie mistakes...and the result was a less believable movie in those areas.
In closing, I would like to have given the movie a 7, as it provoked a lot of emotional reaction in me (fancy way for saying my eyes were not always dry). But in retrospect, I think a lot of that was due to knowing first hand the bond that a handler and their partner form. My guy saved my life and the lives of others as well, so some scenes were quite emotional. The reason I had to lower my rating to a 6 is that I think without my personal background on the subject, some of those scenes were a little too wooden.