Superficial 'Valkyrie' rides on fact-based conspiracy

Bryan Singer's "Valkyrie" could have been a riveting political thriller, a real-life "Mission Impossible" tale so bizarre, so big and so bold that it left audiences in stunned, open-mouthed silence during the ending credits.

Instead, we must settle for the bland satisfaction of witnessing a competently made historical drama that burns a long, long, fuse before it finally detonates into a compelling account of an intricately planned attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler and take control of Germany during the waning days of World War II.

Even then, "Valkyrie" struggles to keep us engaged.

Tom Cruise, star of the popular escapist "Mission Impossible" action movies, doesn't delve much beneath the skin of Col. Claus von Stauffenberg, the morally outraged German officer who helps plan and execute a 1944 plot to bomb Hitler's meeting room at the infamous Wolf's Lair headquarters.

Cruise's surface performance doesn't get much help from Singer, who, as he did in "Superman Returns," brings scenes to the brink of a roiling boil of suspense, but seems unable to maximize their dramatic intensity.

Working from a honed script by Christopher "The Usual Suspects" McQuarrie and debuting screenwriter Nathan Alexander, Singer tells the true story of Stauffenberg, who early on experiences an epiphany that Hitler is an evil entity whose campaign of terror must, to use current political currency, "change."

He believes that Nazis are "a stain upon the honor of the German army." He falls quickly in with a secretive group who believes as he does, and wishes to overthrow the Nazis before the Allies take Berlin, and thereby save German honor.

The conspiracy consists of the retired, Hitler-hating Gen. Beck (Terence Stamp, on loan from "Yes Man"), the constantly worried Gen. Olbricht (Bill Nighy), Wolf's Lair communications boss Gen. Fellgiebel (Eddie Izzard), Major-General Tresckow (Kenneth Branagh, who's made a cottage industry out of playing Nazis), and Gen. Fromm (Tom Wilkinson), commander of Berlin's reserve troops and a fascinating political personality who strives to be on both sides simultaneously.

Anyone familiar with history knows what happens. Still, "Valkyrie" (the code name of the order to activate Berlin's reserve troops against Nazis) generates honest thrills in scenes where a massive, well-run rebellion - the number of military personnel involved is staggering - takes place under the Nazis' noses.

Although David Bamber plays Hitler as a mousy, quiet dictator, Singer showers Der Führer with reverential awe as if, in hindsight, the camera is magically aware he's a genocidal monster that must be approached with trepidation.

Meanwhile, the conspirators are almost caught so many times during their conspiring that the gimmick wears thin and becomes quickly boring.

After all, a filmmaker can cry wolf's lair only so many times.