I just finished All Quiet on the Western Front 2022, and i have very very very very very mixed feelings

Something of the movie felt so off compared to the 1979 version, which i believe to be the much much stronger film, and much more true to the book

Like the movie has 3 very strong sections and 3 very very shit ones

1st part is similar to book and 1979 version, boundless optimism, and the foolish naive young Iron youth, give way to the true horror of war, and not being an adventure

Then there's there's a shockingly boring half hour of the guys being behind the lines and stealing eggs and the pacing problems feels indescribably weird - i also personally could not connect with any of the chars outside of kat and paul, where in 1979 version the whole troop was very memorable, and thus the dwindling friendcircle, and the annialation of the original 9 members of the troop was much more devastating

Then there's at least a middle section where the humiliation of krauts by allies cucking them with resources, which is well acted, and the best middle action scenes with tanks and flamethrowers which is great - however good action scenes dont alone make for good war movies/dramas

tHen a second very bizarre section follows which events are out of order in the books, and compared to the1979 version, kat dies from being shot by farmboy for stealing eggs or some shit instead of on front line - now this should make little narrative difference, but i feel it undercuts the core theme of kats death from the book. I understand when Soldiers in final episode of Band of Brothers die, it sympolizes the tragic irony and horror of turbo veterans outliving shit like Normandy and Rhine battles, only to die of car crash, but with Kat in 1979 version, he dies after everyone of the original troop, despite being a gigachad rugged soldier - symolizing the ruthlessness of the war consuming all of bravest and most battle-hardened noble soldiers, dying of egg-poaching undercuts the deadly all cosuming reach of the war itself

There's other shit which bothers me as well

Post kat death the movie stalls AGAIN. Like wtf is with the goddarn pacing of this movie holy shit - it's like im watched 3 different movies stitched together.

Like in book and 1979, the pace is even and very simple - the group gradually dwindles over time, with eACH concurrent death being heavier and heavier, there's no weird soul shit mid way. The full culmination of Kat's death, is how unexpected it is, because until the reveal we believe the old veteran of all the smucks would live - with the final climax beings Paul's death despite being a mega veteran by war's end, when he has a moment's relapse in judgement when painting a bird and exposing his head over trench, symbolising the culmination of lost innocence

Like the book &1979 is very basic and simple - the themes are simple but deep, the slow burn is as satisfying as it's cruel and heartwrenching

The fricking 2022 movie pinballs from great to brokenshit nonsense, again wtf is with the pacing,

Also i fricking realize the krauts attempted to recontextualize the feeling of betrayal which soldiers felt the political leaders sold the ground beneath their feet, not being privy to the macro scale info on how turbo fricked krauts were, but my god the head kraut bad-guy literal fricking ww1 mouschtache twirling guy is so comically evil and 1dimensional, it's like a lap of iced water to my face - it's like fricking JarjarBinks whiplash

One moment we have the cruelty of man displayed in all its rawness as Paul remorses over the Frog he stabbed in a krater, the next fricking Frollo from Hunchbag of Notredarne is singing his badguy lyrics - like it reminds of that shitty RedTails George Lucas movie about black americans overcoming their perceived racism from their white peers, while still fricking portraying the head kraut badguy as a scar having saturday cartoon villain, it kind of defeats the purpose to dispel old mythos if you just upkeep others

Like i realize people can experience things differently, and maybe others who saw 2022 might believe im over exagerating, and they felt the Kraut General stand in, but for me it was too too too too much, its like cold water splashed into your bed.

The 1979 movie was very muted.

And this whole obsession of the 2022 to place the 2ndary theme of how Krauts mythologized the loss of WW1 as the fault of politicians, which i understand is a big mythos for krauts ,and the rise of old adolf, but it tears the movie into different types of frankenshit parts. It feels indescribable to me - like krauts had to postrate themselves before the earth about how WRONG they were in history, and the rest of us were like "you r-slurs realize that AllQuiet book was very neutral in the portrayal of its themes?" Like it applied to all parties on the western front

Something about the fricking movie feels very Presentism, like a need to ascribe present day morals to the old book, as if it needs updating. I want to go full r-slur and almost call it woke, but it's very very far from woke, it's another indescribable form of cuckoldry which i think is unique to krauts and their perpetual self shame. I donno its so weird and im not media literate to describe the feeling of weirdness i felt about the miss-mash of themes i was left with post movie

TLDR: go watch 1979 version, much better movie