As the men advance, five of them end up capturing a building as they rescue a young woman named Katya. Back in the autumn of 1942, Stalingrad is in flames. One of the Russian rescuer tells a trapped victim that he has five fathers. The movie opens with the aftermath of a massive earthquake in Japan. Reviewed by SnoopyStyle 5 / 10 At least the action looks good but the story is a mess I don't think the filmmakers intended those scenes to be funny though so make of that what you will. When the few defenders of the building suddenly decide to storm out of their defensive positions à la 300 and when a gun crew manages to bank a shell off the armor of a broken T-34 to a German position around the corner, I just couldn't contain myself. I have to say I did get a few laughs from the movie though. Instead the film's focus was on the explosions and slow-motion combat. If they chose this as the film's context then the movie should've been about resilience and brotherhood but none of that was to be found. There's the Barmaley statue of the dancing children and boats crossing the Volga to remind you it's actually Stalingrad but that's about it. You could've transplanted them to any other random battle and nothing would've changed. The movie wasn't really about Stalingrad either but about this hastily put together group of soldiers defending some random building in Stalingrad. The setup in the beginning and the narration overall didn't work either, I mean was that Russian aid worker really telling the story of the bloodiest battle in human history to a group of scared German girls trapped under ruins? Way to depress them even further. The characterizations are so minimal you'd struggle to see them with a microscope. They're ridiculous caricatures with no humanity behind them and their actions are illogical and baffling most of the time. Who actually speaks in those propagandistic terms? They also set up the characters so badly, I could scarcely remember anyone's name and didn't care about any of them. The script and the dialogue were absolutely terrible and cringe-worthy. The movie's laughably propagandistic sentimentality does it no favors either though I guess Bondarchuck's pal Putin might appreciate it (Bondarchuck has publicly supported Putin's moves in Crimea and otherwise). It can obviously enhance a scene in a movie if used sparingly but the filmmakers really went comically overboard with its use in this one. Slow motion is usually used to amplify powerful scenes, not to blanket the whole movie with it. Seriously, why is almost every scene in this movie using slow motion? This one visual trick screwed up the film's pacing and tension so badly that whatever else might've been there couldn't have saved it. Reviewed by lornloxor 1 / 10 Sloooooooooooow Moooooooootiooooon
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