German reviewers who were initially highly suspicious have warmed to the film, describing it as a serious work, and Cruise has overcome unease about his suitability for the role.
'Valkyrie is neither scandalously bad nor the event of the century. Neither is it the action thriller we feared, but it is a well-made and serious film,' said public broadcaster ZDF.
'Cruise plays his part decisively, coolly - a solid performance, though he won't have a sniff at an Oscar.'
The Hollywood actor plays Colonel Claus Von Stauffenberg, who planted a briefcase bomb under a table at Hitler's military headquarters in eastern Prussia on July 20, 1944. The heavy wooden table saved Hitler, who suffered only minor injuries.
Stauffenberg was executed the same night with his co-conspirators and his legacy helps ease the burden of guilt about World War Two and the Holocaust Germans still endure.
Fears unfounded?
Initially, Germans baulked at the prospect of Cruise, star of blockbusters such as Top Gun, playing Stauffenberg.
Stauffenberg's son even called on Cruise to 'keep his hands off my father' and go home.
Many Germans objected to the actor's ties to Scientology, the movement founded in the 1950s by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, and Berlin made it difficult for the crew to film in the Bendlerblock building and courtyard where Stauffenberg was shot dead.
Germany does not recognise Scientology as a religion and regards it as a cult masquerading as a church to make money.
Scientologists reject this view.
Valkyrie, directed by Bryan Singer, opened in the United States on Dec 25 and fared better than sceptics had predicted, reaching No. 4 in the North American box office ratings for the three-day weekend starting Dec 26.
Before its German release in January, some commentators said Cruise may help to boost the country's image by taking the tale of Stauffenberg to a broader audience.
Mr Frank Schirrmacher, co-publisher of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, said Cruise's depiction would change the image the world has of Germans.
In the ZDF review, German director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, whose The Lives of Others won a foreign language film Oscar, described the casting as a stroke of good fortune.
'Germany's hope is called Tom Cruise'.
The Koelner Stadt Anzeiger added: '(The fear that) the myth of the German resistance would be put through a Hollywood filter has turned out to be wrong and prejudicial. On the contrary, the American origin of this film is its biggest advantage.' The coverage, however, was not all favourable.
'The film is well-crafted, no explosive, loud war drama but a calm, chronological tale ... the main weakness is Cruise himself, who appears in almost every scene but is stiff,' wrote the Badische Zeitung. -- REUTERS
Form factor
Even though the C905 may come across as a bit heavy and thick (18 mm) at first sight, it does have that feel-good factor that will immediately erase any doubts about it being uncomfortable to use. It weighs just 136 gm. The 2.4-inch TFT LCD display sports a 240 x 320 pixel resolution with 262 K colours. Just above the display, on either side of the earpiece, are shortcut keys for quick access to various camera settings. A secondary camera is located in between.
The five-way navigation pad also has camera shortcuts that become available in camera mode. The other keys are quite generic to Sony Ericsson handsets — ‘Call’, ‘Answer’ and ‘End’, two ‘Open’ keys, a ‘Cancel/Delete’ key and access to the shortcut menu.
The C905 is a brilliantly smooth slider phone with a well designed keypad that’s large enough to accommodate even stubby fingers. The keys are well placed. On one side of the handset are the volume/zoom keys, shortcut to the gallery, camera mode switcher (video to still) and the camera’s shutter release. An M2 card slot and SE’s proprietary port are located on the other side. The speaker and strap loop are at the bottom.
What really appealed to me was the camera, which is neatly hidden by a sliding panel at the rear. Just slide the silver panel down and voila — it reveals an 8 megapixel camera lens with a Xenon flash.
Plus there are a lot of other goodies thrown in. Like the sleek memory card reader for the 2 GB M2 card that’s part of the handset. Sony Ericsson has also finally answered our pleas to do away with their one-port-for-all system. The port is still present, but the charger now has a secondary port built in for plugging in the handsfree whilst the handset charges. I’d say this phone does really well in the looks department.
GPS
The C905 has an internal GPS receiver that supports A-GPS. Google Maps are preloaded, but the Wayfinder Navigator 7 application isn’t as user friendly as either Route 66 or even SatGuide, which feature in some WinMob devices. It’s a wee bit slow as it doesn’t store maps on the handset, instead it updates your routes on the go.
It has a 3D map display and a pedestrian mode for walking. I could’ve used a little more data on the points of interest that could’ve been preloaded. The application manages to find Wi-Fi hot-spots inside a certain range. Areas with low network pose problems, but it gets the job done without too much hassle.
The Geo-Tagging facility lets you take pictures and shows you exactly where the images were taken by pinpointing the location on Google Maps. One of the biggest problems though, is the lack of an uploading application for images.
Media
When it comes to media, there’s no real difference between the C902 or the C905 or most other higher end Sony Ericsson handsets. Media features include the usual editing applications for images, videos and MusicDJ. It has a built-in voice recorder, a Bluetooth remote for PC control and TrackID, which is handy for getting music information, either from the integrated FM radio (that has decent reception) or music playing through an external source. Three preloaded games — Tennis, Chess and Need for Speed — have been tossed in.
The audio capabilities of the handset are the best I’ve experienced in Sony Ericsson handsets, including some from the Walkman series. It supports MP3/AAC/MPEG4 playback. The bass-line is superb, with almost no distortion even at maximum volume.
You can download podcasts as well. The handsfree has normal earphones, not the in-ear type. Video playback is really good and the ‘Resume’ feature is great when you’re interrupted while watching a video or listening to music. It also has a TV Out feature for which you’ll need to buy the relevant cabling. (Reported by SRanaITechtree.com. TOI/Gadgets, Dec 23, 2009)
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