Valkyrie Review: Em

“We have to kill Hitler,” stated Colonel Operation Stauffenberg emotionlessly about thirty minutes into the film Valkyrie. This one line alone can sum up everything that happened in Valkyrie’s two hour duration. What was advertised to be a thriller about an attempt on Adolf Hitler’s life turned out to be a slow paced, confusing movie with two unsatisfying climaxes.

Tom Cruise plays the eye patch wearing Colonel Stauffenberg (who also happens to be missing a hand, as well as two fingers on his other hand); a determined military official who yearns to stay true to his country instead of the man he swore an oath to, Adolf Hitler. As an act of devotion to his country, he plots to assassinate Hitler and put Valkyrie in effect. Operation Valkyrie is the plan that must go into effect if the Führer were ever to die during the war. Colonel Stauffenberg ensures that once Valkyrie goes into effect, it will benefit him, and his colleagues.

Most of the characters in this movie seemed rather stoic and emotionless in their efforts to save the Germany they loved and believed in. Their impassionate approach to their duties as well as the audiences’ lack of knowledge of their families made them seen inhuman. Not until the very end, when you learn about one of the characters wife, did I feel any compassion for the man. The lack of explanation about the events in the movie tends to leave the audience in the dust, and makes the events in the movie forgetful. Bryan Singer (director) even makes the mistake of giving Stauffenberg fingers when he is suppose to have none. He also shows the wrong eye as missing in the one scene we see Stauffenberg without his eye patch or false eye. Though these aspects of the movie were disappointing, several things were done well and enhanced the movie greatly. The use of a musical score stood out to me; without the music this movie would have amounted to absolutely nothing. The music created a suspenseful feeling whose absence would have made the movie empty. Singer had good intentions, but without the thrilling fight scenes of an X Men flick, or the epic screenshots from Superman, Singer seems to have gotten a little lost.

All in all, I would give this movie two out of five stars. If you are interested in learning more about World War II, this movie offers an interesting view on the war, for it does not touch on the devastating concentration camps, or horrors of the war that most films do. The movie is rated PG-13, so if you’re not ready for loud, slightly graphic war scenes, stay away.