Stalingrad

The first Russian film to be produced in 3D IMAX aims for the epic by focusing on one of the bloodiest battles of the Second World War. Director Fyodor Bondarchuk centres on an imagined pocket of the conflict, where a ragtag band of Russians defends a strategically important building against overwhelming German forces. This scenario allows for all the usual national stereotypes and clichés of the genre to be ticked off, but with the slight novelty that two of the city's women become vital to the action. Our downtrodden Russian heroes are given a sense of purpose by the defiant Maria Smolnikova, but it's Thomas Kretschmann's insubordinate Nazi officer and his pursuit of the unfortunate Yana Studilina - and her conflicted response to his attention - that adds a welcome note of ambiguity to proceedings. With the ever-present ash raining from the sky and the rubble-colour palette, Bondarchuk conjures a vision of Stalingrad that is a veritable hell on earth, but his slo-mo action sequences are so gratuitously gung-ho as to verge on combat porn - not least the sight of Russian troops advancing on the enemy while engulfed in flames. Subtlety isn't one of the film's strengths, but Kretschmann's committed performance and the sheer scope of the production at least ensure that it remains watchable to the end.