Flyboys

Wow! Flyboys has one of the best DTS audio tracks I have ever heard. Sounds of plane engines, weapons firing, bullets whizzing by, explosions all over the place, and whatever else they could jam in there comes to full, exuberant life in this World War I film. It was so realistic; my wife came running downstairs to see if I was firing guns in the house (she had warned me about that before). The problem though, is you find you don’t really care.

A film about the Lafayette Escadrille, the first American fighter pilots serving under France in WWI, seems to be a promising premise worthy of a good film treatment. Yet the direction, screenplay, and photography of this film come across as so by the numbers, that nothing plays as exciting or emotional as it should. Instead, I found myself bored and not caring about the characters I was watching. I think some of their dialog was inspired by some fine Roger Corman movies.

All through the viewing, I could tell that the filmmakers worked really hard to make a good film, and at times maybe too hard. Most noticeably in the musical score. The music by itself sounds great, but for the film, it’s so overwrought that it becomes irritating. There was even one theme that played throughout that sounded eerily a lot like some of James Horner’s fine score for Braveheart.

Watch it if you know nothing of the history of this particular story and aren’t interested in reading a book. Just don’t expect too much. I don’t think it’s a terrible movie, I just think the subject matter deserves more.