Nice effects though.

Absolutely Fantastic

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

A difficult movie to assess. Many people seeing it probably expected more of the very clever, but somewhat romantic, view of Russia on the verge of succumbing to Stalinism contained in the original "Burnt by the Sun".Inevitably they will be disappointed. This movie deals with a period when the romantics of earlier days had been crushed, when the Russian world was unremittingly harsh, capricious and chaotic for all, and its people confronted great menace from both inside and out.Its structure is, as others have noted, somewhat chaotic, with frequent , but clearly delineated, changes in time, both backwards and forwards. We see contrasts drawn between the earlier era of the first film, together with the the time of the great retreats in 1941 and the recovery of Russian lands, and re-assertion of what passed for Stalinist "order", in the advances of 1943. At times this is disconcerting, but for me it captured the essence of the era.The film never lurches into the excesses of "heroism" that one often sees in Hollywood movies dealing with war (and in Soviet era "war" movies , too, for that matter). If it owes its approach to anything it is to Remarque's "All quiet on the Western Front" and other similar works. Vignettes of personal strength, suffering and weakness. Recognition that contingency, accident and decisions made from afar, rather than personal attributes, largely determine who lives and who dies in war -an absence of heavy moralizing (though there are some Christian allusions that it may be interesting to see resolved in part 2 when it arrives), but the recognition of moral dimensions even amidst chaos.It is truly brutal at times, but paradoxically the violence is almost understated when one thinks of the staggering 20 million people who died during the period portrayed.People have very different reactions to this film. Three of our party were seriously disappointed while two of us thought it seriously good, and wanting to see how the next in the series resolves the many unanswered questions which this film leaves you with.

I agree with opinions that it is a little bit antihistorical, I agree film is connection of episodes. I agree film is not patriotic...ButThis film doesn't show Germans as Devils, this film doesn't show Soviets as Heroes.And the main:The purpose of this film is show that Hundreds people may die because of one stupid idiot antics Each episode of this film did it the best way.See the main, don't take in your mind super affects and you will find this film great.

I guess, it's the worst movie I've ever seen. After this spit at Russian history Mikhalkov is a "spent bullet" director for me. If you want to know about the history of WWII in Russia don't watch this movie because all you'll see is several scenes of "how Mikhalkov wanted it to be". He's gone too far in his quest to alter the history. He shows a silly death of "kremlin cadets" just to "prove" how dull the Russian commanders were. But in a real world these "kremlin cadets" stopped Nazi's near Moscow. The final scene is absolutely amoral, it's like a knife to the heart of those who died defending their motherland. In fact, it's hard to find a scene in this movie where people are not silly. I've read a lot of feedbacks from people who fought in this war and these people say that Mikhalkov is a liar and they curse him.

As everyone already knows this is the most expensive movie made in Russia. So I was expecting some good story and visual effects. But what we got was something awful. There is no story in the movie, it's more like "let's show them that scene, now let's show them this scene" and the connection between scenes is really unnatural. This movie is anti-historical. There were no "shtrafbat" in 1941, there were no German tanks under sails, Stalin was not looking like a zombie etc etc. And another thing is, that Red Army did fight against Germans, but for some reason Nikita Mikhalkov is showing us that Soviet Army is a bunch of scared and unorganized people. if things were like that Germans would have taken over Moscow in 41. Some of the scenes of this movie are so ridiculous that I do not even want to talk about them. For example, the scene where German shooter wants to s**t right out of a flying plane. That is impossible and you can't move your plot by creating impossible situations.So, in conclusion, I would like to say that it is unpatriotic, stupid, anti-historical movie with very poor visual effects. Do not watch