Ang Lee's problematic 'Billy Lynn's' still radiates wow!

Groundbreaking cinematic technology provides the chief raison d'être for Ang Lee's pro-soldier/anti-war, character study/combat movie "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk."

The drama, based on Ben Fountain's 2012 novel and boldly shot by John Toll, combines 3-D imagery with 4K digital resolution shoved through a projector at 120 frames per second (five times as fast as standard speed).

But, only New York and Los Angeles critics saw the movie in that format. Chicago press saw it in diminished 2-D standard speed. Still, the result radiated considerable WOW.

Ultratight close-ups of the actors emanate a slight "Wizard of Oz"-like quality, but they lock on to our retinas like tractor beams and pull us into the images, especially when Toll's lens falls on the young face of newcomer Joe Alwyn, whose luminous blue irises become twin swimming pools of raw empathy.

He plays Texas infantryman Billy Lynn, who begins the movie valiantly risking his life to save his wounded sergeant, Shroom (a stilted Vin Diesel), on the battlefield in Iraq.

Back home, Billy rejoins his unit, the Bravos, as guests of the Dallas Cowboys' unctuous owner Norm Oglesby (a priggish Steve Martin) at the 2004 Thanksgiving Day game.

Lee's bland, neutral point-of-view declines to toss comical barbs at the establishment for paying lip service to the war, but not caring for its warriors. Backstage techies at the halftime show attack the Bravos in a street brawl, suggesting what? Hatred or jealousy?

Wisely, Lee anchors his movie with the appealing Alwyn, whose accessibility humanizes this war story loaded with one-dimensional characters, save for Garrett Hedlund's brilliantly sarcastic Sergeant Dime and Kristen Stewart's pro-family liberal, pushing her brother Billy to opt out of the service before his post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms take him.