Did I really want to go see Stop-Loss? No.
Do I see too many movies, was bored, and therefore had no other movies currently available for me to see? Yes.
Anyone who happened to stumble upon a trailer for the film Stop-Loss could probably give you the idea of what the movie was going to be about. Part of me wondered whether or not they would deviate, in any way, from the trailers message of the war in Iraq being wrong and the United States Stop-Loss program being evil. As I expected, the film veered very little from the path of shoving the idea that the war in Iraq is wrong and being handled poorly down the audiences throat.
To be fair, the film was well shot, had some fairly consistent and well thought out characters, and an ending that made you think. However, the film will be simply catalouged as "another anti-war" picture because of its inability to grow beyond that subtext. There were many opportunities for the film to examine, more in-depth, the effect the war has on a soldiers mind, on his family life, etc. Unfortunately, the plot revolves around the main character going AWOL and essentially running away from all those issues which could have made for an infinitely more interesting and poingant movie.
In the end, Stop-Loss just left me wanting so much more. It wasn't a terrible movie, but it wasn't very great either. I haven't felt so much indifference toward a movie in a long time.
If you're a big advocate for or against the war, you may want to take a look at Stop-Loss to see what it has to say--but don't expect to hear anything new or original.