All Critics (191)
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Top Critics (39)
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Fresh (121)
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Rotten (75)
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DVD (10)
Valkyrie, as field-commanded by director Bryan Singer, succeeds on its own terms as a handsome hybrid of conspiracy thriller and history lesson, of Mission: Impossible and The Day of the Jackal.
Surely there is some middle ground between a history lesson and mindless action-adventure. The people who made Valkyrie not only didn't find that ground; they weren't even looking for it.
It is a well-made film that raises timeless questions about the demands of military duty when they are placed in conflict with higher principles.
What if this lesser-known chapter of German resistance had been more deeply captured? What if the moral conflicts running through this movie about love of country and revolt said more about Germany, war and, yes, genocide?
Singer keeps the conspiracy racing to its fated conclusion.
As a suspense movie, this works pretty well.
If there's one thing Cruise knows how to portray, it's robotic single-mindedness.
Counterbalancing the energy vacuum that is Cruise is the good news that this is also a Bryan Singer movie.
As both a World War II film and a conspiracy story Valkyrie largely succeeds. No one part may stand above its fellows (not to mention other films) but what it adds up to is more than worthwhile and you may find yourself pleasantly surprised.
Cruise, Singer, lose the credibility battle.
El Caso de Valquiria como cinta es muy interesante pues a pesar de que todos sabemos el desenlace, la realización logra mantenernos pegados a la butaca pidiendo de forma imposible que el complot funcione y dejándonos al final con un montón de "Y si%u2026"
the action is traded for suspense in the movie, which is when things really click
Singer can only touch on the surface of each development. It would help if we could see the failure reflected in von Stauffenberg's one good eye, but Cruise, alas, can offer little help. He's just Tom Cruise in an eyepatch.
Maintaining tension in the face of a foregone conclusion is no mean trick, but Mr. Singer and company do as well as anyone could hope.
It's never a pretty sight when a limited performer tries to "stretch" by way of cosmetics
[Cruise] looks about as German as Jackie Chan would in a lederhosen.
It's the perfect film for our age of reassessment and ambiguity.
Earnest and understated movie about the General's plot against Hitler. Despite Cruise's reputation for derring-do characters, this is a very human German colonel that he plays.
[A] pleasing throwback to 1970s war-intrigue pictures. [Blu-ray]
...finally can't help but come off as something of a minor disappointment...
The movie proceeds to show how everything, little by little, falls out of place -- not the most thrilling of events to cover, but interesting all the same.
[Cruise] brings a gung-ho excitement and energy that's generally missing from war movies today (they're more concerned with being stern and glum and anti-war).
An interminable costume drama strictly for Tom Cruise fans and for World War II buffs.
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