Why? Mr. Singer, after a lovely first 2 xmen movies, would you choose Superman Returns over redeeming the 3rd X. Be the hero you are hoping to revive and make X3 already. Sorry. Rant. And, now Mr. Singer, with money and phenomenal actors at your disposal (hmm...disposal...hmm), why would you choose to create an emotionless holocaust piece?
Sadly, I was never allowed to forget that Tom Cruise was Tom Cruise. Despite his loppy, curly top, this sad and true story, and his piercing glass eye (which he treats as souvenier /calling card), I always thought "hmm...Tom".
The cast as a whole is brilliant, including the indelible Kenneth Branagh ("that guy who does a bunch of Shakespeare" - as I've heard him called). This is why I must choose to blame Cruise and Singer for the emotionless plea throughout this lamentable film / story. We kept feeling like we were supposed to care...then... we'd see Tom. Perhaps it was Cruise's singular, stoic, stone-faced expression. Perhaps we knew the inevitable outcome. Perhaps it was the unabashed blend of non-German accents used by the actors who were supposed to be playing Germans.
This film did challenge my perceptions in one way, however. I have always naively considered all WWII German soldiers to be brainwashed Nazis. Valkyrie (pronounced Wal-ku-ree in the literal German) reminded me that this was not the case - that even at the highest ranks of the greatest evils, leaders do think for themselves and die for truth.
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