I've started to watch with an open mind, but being a seaman and ex navy it's hard to 'not' notice the flaws in this movie. It is a onesided storytelling. First and and formost i hate the computer animation, it is so 'Disney-like', second it is obvious that the seaman and military character is not present in the actors, third, never throughout the war did a u-boat surface at those short distances at all, let alone to commence a surfacebattle with a destroyer, and last, it is not raw enough, that's what made 'Das Boot' such a great movie... Pity... i had great expectations for this movie.

Good production, quite intense, very interesting reenactment of a battle at sea, although I am not sure how realistic and accurate it is (those submarines liked to fight a lot in plain sight over the water, right?).

My main issue? It was like a documentary, lots of battle time but no much human drama. No time given to develop any characters or even make us feel something about these people.Ships were sinking in the middle of the Atlantic and we never had a look in the horror of trying to survive this. Even Hank's character felt flat. The few scenes with his love interest were rather awkward and didn't contribute much. At one point we were wondering if the captain was in the spectrum or something..

Still, if you are a fan of WWII movies I suggest to watch it for the unique perspective of a battle at sea.

It's based on real life events, so I realize you can't really embellish it like an entirely fictional film. But you see some attempts at character-building, but in the end, no character really stands out or has any depth. Characters are just discarded--the wife (played by Elizabeth Shue for all of one scene and a flashback), the first officer, crew members, etc. It just becomes a series of naval combat action scenes. As many reviewers have commented, the movie feels like it's too short and missing something.

There is a hint of something there--the frustration, dread, and the conflicting emotions of having to make difficult decisions of protecting a large convoy with limited resources. But Hanks plays a captain who supposedly is an inexperienced commander on his first command, having to face the full onslaught of an experienced German Wolf Pack--the problem is, he is so calm, collected, precise and intuitively makes all decisions correctly, it's not believable. Again, it's entirely feasible that the real life captain was exactly that and this was an extraordinary accomplishment, but as a movie, he just comes across as any commander with exceptional anti-submarine warfare experience, with none of the vulnerability, fear and doubt. The "cat and mouse" hunter vs. hunted tension that one would come to expect from a movie involving sub combat feels somewhat lacking.

The action sequences are very good and seem realistic. But in the end, there's not a lot of substance, and you won't feel very emotionally invested in any of the characters, the way we've all felt watching movies like Saving Private Ryan, Das Boot, Fury, or any number of excellent WWII movies out there. It's certainly not a bad movie and enjoyable to watch, but understand that it's very limited in what it portrays.