Nikolai Müllerschön's film about the German flying ace has nothing like the sort of flair it needs to get away with its sentimental departures from historical facts. It's a German production with a largely German cast, yet, with international markets in mind, the actors speak English. That the title role is filled by a fresh-faced youngster, Matthias Schweighöfer, is appropriate - von Richthofen died aged 25 in 1918 - but, with Schweighöfer manfully concentrating on getting his vowels right, the Baron seems more like an exchange student than a deadly aristocratic sharpshooter. The CGI-rendered aerial combat scenes are enjoyable, though I'm not sure they're much more factually accurate than the rest of the film. The work of military history most keenly studied by Müllerschön and his crew looks to have been George Lucas's account of civil strife in a galaxy far, far away.
12A, 129 mins