You won't be disappointed!

Good start, but then it gets ruined

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

The film does a good job depicting the brutal process of African youth being converted into child soldiers, not only in this un-named West African nation, but probably throughout all of Africa. The film does not shy away from depicting the sickening barbarism of war, and the aimless cycles of revenge that keeps it going. Viewers should be warned when watching this film. What blew my mind the most about this film was the speech made by the African warlord toward the end of the film as his soldiers are abandoning him. I have *absolutely no sympathies* for this character, but I feel his speech hit it on the head not only for veterans of this historical fiction conflict, but for US Veterans as well (minus the war crimes). In my opinion, I feel that the US has some of the absolute poorest attitudes towards its veterans when compared with many nations in the world. What you see in the US is absolute insincere, shallow, fakery in terms of its public 'support' for veterans (my opinion). Also, the speech made the by main character, a child soldier, during his therapy after he surrendered, could not have said it ANY better for US Veterans....COMPLETELY different circumstances between the wars of US Veterans and the rebels depicted in this movie, yet the final realities for both veteran groups are depicted in similar and disturbingly accurate ways. Brian Ghilliotti

I just finished watching the film and that was probably one of the most basic and mediocre story line plots I've ever seen in a film. You can literally sum up the whole 2 hour film in 20 seconds: Agu's Family are killed by the government troops, the rebels take Agu in, Agu feels uncomfortable with being a part of the rebels, Agu feels like he is part of rebels, Agu soon realizes killing people is wrong, Agu is rescued and put into a care home. The End.Everyone just pretends that they really enjoyed this film because it is based on true events and is "meaningful". That film wasn't meaningful one bit, it didn't show the truth of what child soldiers. And why does everyone praise Idris Elba so much for his performance? There's a ton of people out there who can put on an African accent, pick up a gun and look intimidating. Really people Idris Elba's performance is nothing to get crazy about.And let's not forget the fact that this film was a box office failure making only $90,000. Seriously, how can a film receiving this much praise make less than $100,000? Even some of the worst reviewed films out there such as The Emoji Movie have made more money than Beasts Of No Nation.Beasts Of No Nation will never be any better than any other film based on civil war in Africa such as Blood Diamond and Hotel Rwanda with well thoughtout out plots.

I've always wondered what it is about Africa that makes it the most unstable continent on Earth. So much poverty, so much fighting. Beasts of no Nation shows why, through the eyes of a child soldier. It starts charmingly, with poor but happy children acting their age. But fast enough, Agu's world is torn apart as his family is killed or escapes to be never seen again. He is then manipulated to be a child soldier to, as he sees it, revenge those who killed his family. And at first, it looks like these are the good guys. But what this film is great at showing is that there are NO good guys. The first scene that causes us to question how different Agu's group really are is a scene in which Agu is persuaded to execute a captured enemy soldier. His acting is phenomenal here and you can tell that he will never be a child again. Then another shocker comes when the NPD, the rebel group Agu is fighting for, mercilessly and indiscriminately kills innocent villagers just like Agu's relatives. In a powerful moment he realises a woman they want to rape could easily be his mother. Yet these are all slaughtered for the crime of being at the wrong place. What makes this film even more heartbreaking is how beautiful the scenery is. The cinematography really captures this. How could something so evil happen somewhere do beautiful? The only gripe I have is with the ending. It's optimistic, which makes you feel hopeful for Agu but that doesn't mean it was the right way to go. In a more realistic scenario he would have ended up becoming a soldier like all the others, brutally murdering and raping villagers. There could have been a flash forward to an adult Agu doing this. Instead the makers chose the safer way out and had Agu rescued by the UN.Beasts of no Nation is a must-see. It makes you understand the never-ending cycle of violence happening in Africa in a distressing way, through the eyes of someone who has seen things he should never have seen and done things no child his age should ever have had to do.

I was wavering on rating this film 6 or 7. It had the potential to be a 9 or 10, and based on all the hype and netflix trailers, I hoped that it would be.There are plenty of brutal and heart-wrenching moments, and Idris Elba is a talented actor that I enjoyed as the warlord molding the kid army. However, I feel that there is some confusion and missing holes in this film, that somehow leave it disjointed. It seems to slow down half- way through, and missed out on designing a more powerful narrative and explanation for many of the things going on. In the end, it comes across as an overly-long war film, that just portrays the same things that many already know or believe about African war zones. I thought Blood Diamond did more to explain situations and build characters, while giving a greater understanding of the situation. There are some good character developments, as the boy becomes desensitized to violence and insanity around him, and some entertaining and intense moments, but it just doesn't match the exquisite film-making of other films on such subjects, or war films in general.I felt lost and kind of bored throughout the last half of the film, and found myself distracted and eating snacks, about to doze off for an afternoon nap. It needs something more!!!