This book/movie should have been called Dog Owners Make Stupid Decisions. Although, Gangsters Make Stupid Decisions would suffice, as well. Still, I feel like Entire Cast of Characters Make Stupid Decisions is better fitting. This may sound harsh, and I suppose it is. The book (and I assume the movie, given that this is based on the screenplay and not the other way around) follows typical Hollywood dog movie formula. In short, I pretty much knew what to expect. Nevertheless, given the description, a huge part of me still expected better. I was kind of hoping it would be about Max's struggle with PTSD after returning from losing his soldier handler. That's not what it was at all, and because of that I was a little disappointed. Instead of addressing PTSD in military dogs, it turned into... well, a carbon copy of every stinking dog movie I've ever seen. Ever.
The book started out good. Brace yourself, this entire review will contain both movie and book spoilers (because book = based on screenplay). The book opens with Justin's family finding out that his brother died in combat. I shed a lot of tears early on. It was emotional. We find out that Kyle enlisted because he wanted to make his dad proud, we find out the dad was a marine who was also injured while he was in combat, and we find out that Kyle had a K9 partner who went overseas with him. The book started out really promising, and for the first few chapters it addresses the scars often left behind in the survivors of battle really, really well. Max is shown to be a very troubled dog. At Kyle's funeral, he plants himself in front of Kyle's coffin and starts howling, and that is literally the saddest scene I have ever read in my life. I didn't expect to feel so many things so early in the book. Needless to say, I had high hopes for the book (and the movie) after having read that.
However, my hopes were slowly let down. What bothers me most about it all was the way the characters were presented. It follows typical Hollywood formula. None of them were developed, they were all one dimensional, and beyond their grieving the loss of Kyle, they felt as though they were carbon copies of every single other character I've seen in Hollywood ever. Justin is the hero trope (at least he actually does something to earn that title, as he was brave - if not stupid - at many points in the book), Carmen is the love interest who happens to know about dogs (heaven forbid we have a girl character that isn't the love interest in Hollywood movies with a main character who's a boy amirite?), Chuy is the dumb but lovable best friend, the dad is the stern but secretly soft dad (because, duh), the mom barely exists except when they need someone to have an emotional breakdown to cook dinner or to perform any other stereotypical mom role, and Tyler and Emilio are, duh, the bad guys who are so stupid you wonder why they haven't been arrested already. Following yet? Yeah, sounds exactly like every movie ever, right? The only thing that made it tolerable was Max. Max saved the story, and made me see it to the end.
Still, something bothers me about Max. The description of the book (and movie) makes it sound like they are going to address his trauma. And it doesn't. This is where the dog owners make stupid decisions. In the beginning of the book, Max is a dangerous dog. Yet, they put Max on a freaking chain. And no one bats an eye! Not even Carmen, self-proclaimed "dog expert". I have been reading about dogs, studying dogs, training dogs all my life and... you don't do that. Chains increase negative feelings in dogs. They lead to aggression, territorial behavior, and in a dog like Max are a recipe for disaster. In anywhere but Hollywood, he would have ended up lunging at the end of that chain until he broke it and really hurt someone one day. Then there's the way Carmen gets in his face upon first meeting. No, girl! NO! Are you stupid? See: People make stupid decisions. Max is not aggressive, he is reactive, but he is still dangerous. You don't put your face in a dangerous dog's face. Ugh. At one point it's mentioned he's wearing a choke collar. While chained outside. Who are these people and why did the military let them take this dog? And then Justin, to show off to Carmen, makes a dangerous jump on his bike with his dog behind him. I wanted to reach through the pages and smack the stupid off his face. Don't even get me started on him letting a dangerous dog off leash. I couldn't comprehend the amount of stupid decisions these people made.
It didn't stop with the good people. The bad guys were such bumbling idiots that I could not, for one second, take them seriously. On what planet are bad guys that... fluffy and harmless? All the times they could have hurt someone, and they wave their gun s in the air like they don't realize that they're holding dangerous weapons? More bullets were shot into the sky than at someone. And yet, we were supposed to be afraid of these people. And the Rottweilers. The book got mad props for mentioning pit bulls in a positive light. But why did they have to perpetuate the evil Rottweiler trope? Another common Hollywood move. Basically, if you've seen one dog movie, you've seen them all. Oh, and another negative ten points for them perpetuating the myth of 48 hours regarding missing persons.
Still, for all the negative things I have to say about this one, I did enjoy some of it. It was cheesy, it was predictable, and it was unbelievable, but Max was an awesome character. And I rooted for him until the end. Nevertheless, I can't really give this more than 3 stars. It was like Air Bud, but with marines and PTSD. The overuse of the word "suddenly" grated my nerves, the overuse of cliches got annoying, and the general writing style made it easy to tell the movie was made first. I really wish the author(s?) had put more of their own style into the book. Made it pop. As it reads, it just feels like they watched the movie and described every scene in dull detail. I recommend watching the movie for this one, and passing on the book. This book might be good, however, for someone 11-14 who is just getting into reading.