It's crazy to think that film has been around long enough that a remake can arrive almost a century after the original. With a gap that long, it's unsurprising that most younger audiences (including myself) have never seen the 1930 adaptation of this novel. Of course, I like to go into movies blind anyway, so it was my preference to judge the film without any bias driven by comparisons to the Best Picture winning original.

The aspect of the film that I enjoyed most was that it comes from the less explored German perspective. When compared to the Allied perspective that audiences are more accustomed to, there are the obvious high level differences (e.g. driving toward a looming defeat versus a triumphant victory), but there are also many little details that I really enjoyed (e.g. the dog tags that snap in two). The opening was clever and well executed, with the [spoiler]life cycle of a German uniform really driving home the scope and human cost of the war[/spoiler]. The filmmaking is also excellent, with plenty of striking visuals and memorable moments. And while it may not be the most elaborate musical motif, the deep, ominous bass riff that repeats throughout was incredibly effective.

Regarding the story, it combines a classic "war is hell" narrative (i.e. [spoiler]naive young soldier joins up with his buddies only to lose them one by one as he discovers that there's nothing heroic about war[/spoiler]) with a clever big picture narrative ([spoiler]the pending armistice acting as a ticking clock to the end of hostilities[/spoiler]). It's a powerful source of dramatic irony that adds a lot of weight to every death. The central performance by Felix Kammerer was also fantastic, with his eyes and demeanor sinking as the war dragged on.

All of that said, I think I've become a bit numb to the actual war sequences that comprise the major beats of the story. Especially with 1917 being only a couple years old, the spectacle of trench warfare just didn't hit as hard. There's only so many ways to show soldiers charging through no man's land, or getting evaporated by artillery shells, or run through by bayonets. That's not to say the movie does a bad job with any of these things. I think it's all visually and technically well executed. But it all feels familiar. The movie was at its best outside of those moments, with trips to steal a goose or eggs standing out above the actual fight on the western front.