Valkyrie

Way back in the day Bryan Singer was my favorite director. This was when i saw 'the Usual Suspects' the two X-men movies, along with 'Superman Returns.' Needless to say i was pumped to hear that he was headed back to Nazi waters for the first time since 'Apt Pupil' which i also liked.

i'm a big history guy, and was interested to learn more about this particular plot to assasinate the fuhrer. Tom Cruise was solid in the film, nothing spectacular however. Something i really liked about the movie was the technique in how they attempted to explain why noone in the film spoke german or had german accents. it opens with subtitles and german speech and slowly faded to english, having it first overlapping with the german then slowly taking it over completely. so it was basically showing that in the movie the people were talking in german however we could understand it.

like tom cruises performance, the movie itself was good not great. it successfully creates tension particularly in the assasionation scene(s). the problem was that the movie tried too hard to be a thriller and should have focused more on being a drama/oscar worthy movie. it fizzles a bit as a straight forward thriller. more attention should have been spent on Cruises family and kids and what he had at stake in attempting the operation. it is hard for me to feel sad or any of emotion for the safety of his family because we hardly know them. the brutality in the final scene was realistically done and probably my favorite of the movie.

the camera work was excellent and the movie was directed well. the style was good. more substance would have been welcome. All in all, Valkyrie was a good popcorn movie, although i expected a little more from a project by bryan singer.