Blood Diamond

Surprisingly better than I originally thought... but then I was conflicted at first glance because everything pointed to it sucking... except that Leo was in it. Leo doesn't do shit movies. He doesn't do only awesome movies, but generally they are atypical. And this movie seemed like it would suck because it would be typical.

It had a few scenes that were borderline cheezy and had a lack of realism but overall it was quite engaging. The action sequences seemed quite realistic, and most of the interactions in characters (except for Jennifer Connelly) were stimulating.

However...

The primary reason this film is good is the fact that it displayed lots and lots of realistic ideas about Africa. The brutality was not conventional and seemed to be displayed with a lot of attention to realism without trying to provide pure shock value.

Additionally, they showed very little gore. I love that.

The most astoundingly disturbing and wonderful part of this film, which probably contains most of the scenes that I actually really loved, were the parts concerned with the way kidnapped children are conditioned to become soldiers. The use of guilt, abuse, vice and addictions is so alarmingly real it really, really scares the shit out of you.

And since it is obvious the movie was made to raise some level of awareness, something very new like that is more likely to stick with viewers than the plain brutality, which they see on CNN and don't give a shit about.

I give it 3.5/5 stars.