GonzoDanMan
I was leery of this movie, a run time of over 2 hours. But I was delightedly surprised as to how good it was! Cliched in parts, yes. The aircraft were not necessarily the exact models as 1917, so what! They had to give the Germans tri-wing planes and the 'good guys' bi-wing planes so we could tell the difference during the spectacular air battles! The plot had a lot of set-ups that you could see coming from a hundred miles away, but it was fun and might I even say 'cute' at times. I liked all the characters for what they were supposed to be, even the menacing Germans. And excellent CGI work, I really enjoyed the part surrounding the Zepplin. Naturally it's Hollywood so they had to crowbar in a romance/love element with James Franco, but that was easy for me to fast forward through. I just wanted the fighting and camaraderie between the pilots. And I didn't know until the end that this was actually based on real guys, probably even some real events! A very good watch.
juneebuggy
I can't quite put my finger on why this was only an okay movie, I just felt like I'd seen it all before, even though it was based on real events (and pilots) it still didn't feel original. Flyboys follows the adventures of young Americans who volunteered for the French military to become their country's first fighter pilots since the U.S still hadn't entered World War 1.This tries really hard to be episodic but falls short as we follow the boys through training. The dog fights are well done and exciting, the romance aspect so-so. There are also some moments of utter cheese.I did enjoy the battle weary pilot Reed and his ongoing showdown with his German nemesis. Pretty poor odds of making it home alive. 06.13
demelewis
Being that I'm avidly interested in WW1 aviation, and having seen negative reviews of this movie when it came out, I'd avoided seeing it. However, I came across it in a shop for three quid and thought I'd give it a look. Having done so, I figured I'd try and belatedly address the slamming it received, because I thought it was hugely impressive and deserved more credit.First up, let me say that not only am I a qualified pilot (and yes I have flown a couple of biplanes), but my job is teaching people how to create CGI effects for the movie industry, so I hope you'll agree that I'm at least qualified to comment on some if not all aspects of the film. Anyway, here goes.Not wishing to let facts get in the way of a good story, the screenplay for Flyboys is somewhat liberal in its interpretation of historical facts and is not afraid to mix events up a little to make for a more fluid and enjoyable experience as far as pacing goes, something which is not unexpected with big budget action movies of course, and is (quite shortsightedly) at the heart of much of the criticism it received.Similarly, there are few surprises when it comes to the storyline; cue young handsome idealistic American hero going to France to volunteer to fight, getting in some scrapes, meeting a beautiful French girl, falling in love and when in the air fighting the 'evil Hun', avenging his fallen comrades. No surprises there, but even so, this familiar trope is nevertheless well crafted, with good direction, cinematography and indeed some decent acting performances. Whilst this might not make it the perfect date movie, it at least does offer something beyond merely seeing aeroplanes and pilots shoot each other to pieces and is actually quite a nice love story.It's easy to critique the occasionally clichéd dialogue and the somewhat soppy romanticism of Flyboys, but I would caution those critics who have done so to perhaps read a few autobiographies of WW1 aviators, and maybe they will learn that many of those clichés became so because they were once the real and indeed quite common experiences of those young men who went off to fight in a foreign land all those years ago, who then wrote about them later. Go on, read a few of those books and you'll see.I might also caution those who have offered armchair expert comments on the flight characteristics of WW1 aircraft, in that many of them are merely repeating some clichés of their own, but in this case inaccurate ones. For example, it's an oft-repeated chestnut that WW1 aircraft were vastly underpowered flimsy unreliable contraptions with hugely inaccurate guns. And whilst it is true that some WW1 aircraft were underpowered (mostly early British observation aircraft), and a few designs were structurally weak in places, lots of them were nothing of the sort, some where in fact very tough; more than a few WW1 aircraft types were capable of diving at well over two hundred mph, some types even remaining in service over a decade after the Great War ended because they were so good. Moreover, you might be surprised at the agility and phenomenally rapid climb rates which many of them could achieve, because more than one original WW1 engine has been tested and found to be putting out far more horsepower than it was thought at the time when it was built. I also challenge anyone who thinks that the Spandaus, Vickers and Lewis guns of WW1 were inaccurate, to stand two hundred yards away from one of them whilst it is fired at them. If they are still alive after that, I'd be happy to stand corrected.It's with this in mind that the production designers had sought to realistically emulate the way such craft were flown in WW1; a time when such aeroplanes were the brand new hot rods of their day, flown in desperate combat, rather than the coveted museum pieces now flown gently at airshows which they are today.The production crew used a number of innovative camera tracking techniques to achieve the portrayal of how the aircraft move in Flyboys, and it shows too, in that you simply cannot tell whether it is CGI or a real aircraft in flight for almost every shot in the movie. No other action-oriented movie has ever managed that when blending CGI and live action, or even come close to it to be honest. It's an incredibly impressive feat of both technical innovation and quality planning of aerial photography.Yes it is true that there weren't that many Red Fokker Dr1 Triplanes and most of the American Volunteer's opponents would have been earlier Fokker types, Albatrosses, Aviatiks etc rather than nippy little Dr1s. And yes it is true that the Nieuports should have been earlier variants or perhaps the odd SPAD or Morane. But all of that detail is eschewed to make the thing less confusing for people who are not WW1 aviation buffs and who simply know to boo when they see a red Triplane and cheer when they see a silver Sesquiplane. So really, all those sticklers for accuracy should realise that is the reason for the amendment to accuracy, shut up and just enjoy what are undoubtedly still the most realistic CGI'd aerial battles ever seen, and not a bad love story too. Oh, and the soundtrack (Trevor Rabin) is good as well.
grahamsj3
I've seen some grousing about the fact that the characters in the film are all composites of several of the real American airmen. They tell us in the very beginning that the film is BASED ON facts, not that it's actually totally factual. I found the film to be an excellent quasi- historical film. The training of the pilots, their quarters, the aerial combat sequences were all very realistic, I thought. Yes, some of the aircraft were computer generated, but it's difficult to gather many actual aircraft of that era together to use in the film - there simply aren't that many flying anymore. The only thing that really hit me as not being true was the fact that nearly all the German aircraft shown in the film were the triple winged ones. They were never the only aircraft in the Luftwaffe and only about 300 were built. It was much slower than many other fighters of it's day, but more agile. I'm sure the filmmakers chose to use them because they're somewhat "iconic" of WW1 German fighter aircraft. In fact, most German aircraft were biplanes. But that's my only complaint. I found the acting, direction and cinematography were very good, editing was very good also. So the execution of the film was very good. There are some great films about WW1 out there and I think this film belongs with them
