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I finally saw the film; downloaded it using utorrent.
These are some quick impressions I have. Let me say firstly, that my Deutsch language skills lack much, so I can't really comment much on the dialog. I was, however, basically able to follow the story. My "war-speak German" is better than my "romance German", so I found myself zipping past some of the Manfred/Katie scenes.
This movie is a welcome edition to the all-too-sparse genre. With typical German craftmanship it just looks wonderful. Artsy in places, practical in others. The backgrounds and props are, in my opinion very convincing (they were in Flyboys too, btw). The full sized mock-ups look wonderful. The buildings, hangers and landscapes work together very well.
The Richthofen family estate looks uncannily like the pictures we have seen. If they took some liberties with history and got a few things wrong, well, they also got a lot right. The planes are gorgeous and the variety of types and models is something to behold. I know some of the folks here will be happy to nitpick color schemes and such, but I just loved how the Flying Circus is depicted.
The story seems to be solid enough. Of course I miss much of the dialog but I can tell you that the romance isn't really the central theme of the film. It doesn't get in the way. It's more of a "comrades in arms" tale.
Some of the scenes are instantly recognizable; like Manfred's last visit home. We've all read the story of Manfred sitting with his Mother, drawn and weary, looking through pictures of all his fallen friends. This script was not written without some research. I can see that the writers cherry picked through facts to craft the story.
And finally there are the battle scenes. Fokkers, Albatripe, Sopwiths, Spads and other types! The variety alone makes this more satisfying than Flyboys. The aircraft seem to move fairly realistically and the damaged aircraft breaking up and flopping out of the sky are breathtaking to watch. It doesn't look like a video game, anyways. The CGI is very nice, especially with clouds, smoke and the front lines below. These "money shots" are worth the price of admission alone.
Oddly, my main gripe is on a silly point... Richthofen's hair is too long. They could have/should have given him MVR hair, but hey, it's a small complaint.
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