Why war movies suck, including this great one:
The answer is simple: the helmets.
I can hardly ever recognise anyone! I really struggle to attach any particular moment of action or piece of dialogue to a specific character. The max for me is usually about 4 guys by the end of the film that I can recognise, and there's always more than four. During the action scenes it's beyond impossible to have the slightest clue what the hell is happening to who. It's always just endless minutes of gunfire, explosions, soldier running, soldier dying, repeat, repeat, repeat. I get so bored I find myself thinking about other things while I stare blankly at the screen and wait till the end to figure if anyone I might recognise is still alive.
Saving Private Ryan is supposed to be one of the best war films ever made and I felt nothing for any of the characters throughout the entire thing. I really wanted to enjoy it, and I blame it on the helmets and the regularly inaudible dialogue. If you can't see the faces, and you can't hear what they're saying, it's really hard to care.