This was surprisingly bad. Some aspects are competent, but there are uncomfortable scenes in the first half and a lot of dead air in the second. If it's an anti-war movie, it doesn't convey it well, and if it's trying to be exciting and/or patriotic, it fails there as well. It's just very dull, and lacks action, which of course wouldn't be a criticism you'd direct towards an anti-war movie, but I feel like this isn't trying to be overtly anti-war.
Maybe near the end it hammers home some horrors? But the boredom and lack of things happening don't work in an anti-war movie way. It's not like Das Boot where the lack of action adds to the movie by conveying the tedium and anxiety of war.
I guess I don't know what it's going for. At least Toshiro Mifune is there, but he doesn't do much. It uh looks okay? And the brief action near the end is decently done. But it's not worth watching over Port Arthur (1980), which has some of the same cast and the same director (Toshio Masuda). That one's not a great movie at all, but it had more going for it than Battle Anthem.
I don't really need to tell people to avoid it. It's got next-to-no reviews and that's understandable, to be honest.
