ivan the misunderstood? the clever? the pointy bearded?

I do not think I would have been able to recognize both Battleship and Ivan as Eisenstein films. This is not because they do not have their similarities, but because I am not advanced enough in my film watching to always recognize similar directing styles.
Since i knew that they were directed by Eisenstein, I did notice some similarities. First of all, both movies use zoom effectively. Sometimes it is needed to have a close-up, and both of these films demonstrate that technique well. Other times, the camera needs to give a wide panoramic view, and while this is not a popular shot in Ivan, it can be seen in the final scene.
Another interesting similarity i noticed was the amount of scenes with no actors in them. There were several scenes that began, ended, or stood by themselves without having actors in them. Sometimes there were shadows, but many times it was of the scenery and props.

Eisenstein, in my opinion had a view that was skewed negatively toward ivan the terrible. I believe stalin would have disagreed with me before seeing the second film. the reasons i say it was negative was because as the movie progressed, ivan makes more and more comments about power. He wants it, he wants to strengthen it, and he wants to get it from the people. At the beginning, ivan seems noble in his quest to unite the peoples of russia, but that desire weakens and a type of revenge towards the boyars starts to grow.