If an Imperial egg could talk, it wouldn’t sound this pretentious

Just a few minutes into this “documentary,” I knew I’d need to put quotes around its genre if I were to comment about it afterward. But, there do exist PR and edu-mercial documentaries that handle their subjects with enough restraint, subtlety and quality that it almost doesn’t matter that they’re still selling a brand.

This movie, which is now in the rentable phase of distribution (a queasy attempt at both trying to be something greater, and trying to profit off it), is a messy spectacle sorely lacking context—especially dates— and anything resembling a plot (if you take away their hodgepodge attempt to chronicle the fall of the Russian Tsars at the beginning of the 20th century).

The gratingly snobbish voiceover is hard to stand and the refusal to put creations into a dated context (aside from the Imperial eggs— which don’t get nearly enough attention) make this a weak effort. The flashy, glitzy, posh lifestyle they try to show via weak stock video at the beginning and end (to presumably sell you on the brand) in the final nail in the coffin.