Flyboys Blu-ray delivers stunning video and audio in this excellent Blu-ray release
Inspired by the true story of the legendary Lafayette Escadrille, this action-packed epic tells the tale of America's first fighter pilots. These courageous young men distinguish themselves in a manner that none before them had dared, becoming true heroes who experience triumph, tragedy, love, and loss amid the chaos of World War I. Hang on for the ride of your life!
As a fan of war movies, I've been scratching my head over the years wondering where the World
War I movies are. This is a conflict ripe for a true to life, no holds barred, gritty war film. If any
war ever showed just how brutal combat can be, it was the War to End All Wars. Several months
ago I saw a clip of a short film directed by Peter Jackson entitled Crossing the Line that
looked
to be astonishing. It whetted my appetite all the more for a true to life WWI film. While such a
film would likely be in the vein of All Quiet on the Western Front with a subtle anti-war
message, a well done adaptation could potentially stand toe to toe with the likes of the all time
war movie greats such as Saving Private Ryan, Full Metal Jacket, and Black Hawk Down.
When I first heard that Flyboys was coming out, I was excited. My only fear with this
project after seeing the trailer was that it would be more of a popcorn movie rather than the hard
hitting and gritty World War I film I've been waiting for.
Who's your daddy?!?
Surprisingly, Flyboys is a decent film, but it is indeed more of a Saturday afternoon
popcorn
movie than a serious war film. The movie stars James Franco (the Spider-Man trilogy)
as Blaine Rawlings, an American
who is 30 minutes from being arrested. He is told to leave town immediately, and having just
seen a newsreel in a theater about the conflict in Europe, he travels to France to join the
Lafayette Escadrille, a branch of the French Air Force during World War One composed
mostly of American volunteers. Along with his squadron mates, he will train and eventually fight
in the skies over Europe. Not only are the battles exciting (if not redundant), but the training
montage was very good. It showed the "unorthodox" training methods employed during World
War I to learn to fly and fight in an aircraft. Flyboys offers up a fairly standard plot with
the expected racial overtones that are eventually overcome, the non-acceptance of the "new
guys" by the veteran fliers that is eventually overcome, and a romance with
issues that keep the couple from seeing one another that are eventually overcome. The movie is
very
predictable with the only question being which characters will die. After the first battle I knew
how the movie would end, and I was right. Nevertheless, Flyboys is a fun way to kill off
two hours, and it does have some replay value if you go long enough in between viewings to
forget the basics.
The movie has a romantic twist for the women and plenty of aerial action for the men. I found
faults with each of these angles. I won't discuss the fault I had with the romantic side story
though the problem is not really a major spoiler, but I don't want to give it up anyway. Suffice it
to say that my issue was not that the romance was there to begin with because it fit in better
than most romances in action movies. It features two likable characters falling in love over a
period of time with some charming and touching scenes. I will, however, discuss my beef with
the action. The combat is very entertaining and well done, but it gets very, very repetitive. The
best comparison I can come up with is that it feels like a video game. The battles are nearly
interchangeable and it seems as if the writers decided to shake things up by making our heroes
take on
progressively larger enemy aircraft as each battle popped up. They begin by taking on only
fighters, then they must destroy a larger plane with several machine guns, and finally a dirigible.
I couldn't help but think that it's the same structure as a video game with more difficult "bosses"
the further along you get in the game.
What really works in Flyboys is the cast. They are all likable characters that we come to
know and care for and I felt a sense of loss when some of them died throughout the film. James
Franco, even in the Spider-Man films,
struck me as a good actor with a broad range of skills in his repertoire, and he makes for a
fine leading man in this film. Even though most of the characters were stereotypes, their
backstories were developed just to an extent to allow us to care for them. Even Jean Reno (Godzilla), whose
character was rather stiff, still came across as having more personality than many characters in
similarly themed popcorn films. Even better than the action, the character studies in this film are
a trait that I hope carries on to other films of this nature in the future. It added a layer of depth
rarely seen in movies big on budget and effects and short on story.
Flyboys is presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio and in 1080p high definition. The overall
image is very, very good with a few annoying issues I had with the transfer. My biggest
complaint is
that the black levels oftentimes looked very washed out to the point that scenes with quite a bit
of
black appeared to have a light mist covering the entirety of the image. I am not sure if this is a
result of the way the film was shot (all digital) or not. I'm not one to bash the artistic intentions
of
the filmmakers, and I would never lower a video score based on original intent (see my review of
28 Days Later) so I am not going to lower
my
final score as a result, especially considering that the image on the whole is stunning. Detail is
good
from start to finish. There is a lot of color here, notably the blue of the uniforms, and it's
eye
popping and bright with a natural and accurate reproduction. I would say this transfer offers the
most vibrant use of color this side of High School Musical 2, except that it looks
natural in Flyboys whereas in HSM2 colors looked pumped up and too bright.
Flesh tones looked great, the image sported
tremendous depth, and the result was an astonishingly real and three dimensional picture.
Something funny happened on the way to the audio review. I watched the movie with the
"core" 1.5 Mbps DTS track on my Playstation 3, but by the end of the same day I found myself
with a brand new
Panasonic DMP-BD30K that allows me to send the lossless DTS-HD MA track to my Denon 3808
(OK
so now I am just dropping names!). Anyway, I took my notes on this film while listening to the
"core" track, but I went back and sampled about 1/4 of the movie again, both action scenes and
"calmer" scenes, for comparison's sake. While everything below still applies, the lossless track
was
a clear and discernible upgrade. The track was most impressive at 1.5Mbps, but believe me, I felt
completely engulfed in the track with the lossless audio running. While I felt an observer to the
action with the lossy track, I felt as a part of the action with the lossless version. The bass and
realism of planes whizzing in all directions, the sound of flak exploding in the air, and the hard
hitting rat-a-tat-tat of the machine gun fire felt like a punch to the stomach. I was completely
impressed. It's also worth noting that Trevor Rabin's score is magnificent, so much so that I am
considering purchasing the soundtrack. The main theme of the movie is eerily reminiscent to a
score I have heard before, and while I am not sure, I think it is similar to James Horner's score
for
Glory (a film I desperately want to see on Blu-ray soon).
The only complaint I had with this track, and one that was still evident with the lossless track,
was that some of the music, especially near the beginning, sounded a little underwhelming,
undefined, and unclear. Dialogue was, at times, lost under the music and seemed to be recorded
at a very low level. I noticed both in the first few minutes of the movie only and the problem
seemed to dissipate as the movie wore on. Nevertheless, I am sorely tempted to give this track a
5 star rating, but I don't want to let the initial excitement of finally hearing DTS-HD MA to
completely cloud my judgement. 4.5 out of 5 is still as close to perfect as you can get, and if
someone wants to tell me I'm wrong and that this is a 5 star track, you won't get any complaints
from me.
I was
pleased with both the quantity and quality of these extras. First up is a commentary track with
director Tony Bill and producer Dean Devlin. This is a mostly nuts and bolts track that offers the
basics you would expect to hear from filming locations to discussions of World War I. It's worth a
listen for fans, but it's nothing spectacular. Six featurettes are included (1080p, 1:04:16). This
is more of a documentary broken up into segments and for both history and movie buffs (me and
me), this is a very worthwhile watch. Segments include Real Heroes: The Lafayette
Escadrille (my favorite), The Diary of a Miniature Stunt Pilot, Whiskey and Soda:
The Lion Mascots, The Real Planes of 'Flyboys', Taking Flight: The Making of
Aerial Battle Sequences, and The Flyboys Ride With the Air Force Thunderbirds & the
Navy Blue Angels.
Next are half a dozen deleted scenes (1080p, 16:51). They are interesting, (especially the
scenes taking place in the trenches), but ultimately it's probably a good thing that they were
trimmed.
'Flyboys' Aerial Guide Track is, as you could probably guess, a pop-up box with some
interesting and some not so interesting factoids surrounding the movie and the history behind it.
Finally, 1080p trailers for Flyboys, The Usual Suspects, Windtalkers, Rocky, Bulletproof Monk, and Hart's War finish off this nice set of extras.
This movie has been on my mind all day, and the more I think about it the more I like it. While
Flyboys wasn't the WWI movie I've been waiting for, it was good enough to tide me
over
until we see a more serious and legitimate look into this conflict on the silver (or Blu) screen. The
action was well choreographed but repetitive, the characters well fleshed out and acted, and the
love interest angle proved a pleasant surprise. This is a nice looking disc
with video quality that is nearly perfect, and the audio is nothing short of arousing and astounding.
A very
good
set of supplements make Flyboys a strong disc. Even though it's a tame movie compared
to what we've seen since the explosion of the gritty and ultra realistic war films that began in 1998
with Steven Spielberg's masterpiece Saving Private Ryan, war movie fans will probably still
enjoy Flyboys. I know I did. Recommended.
