This movie is the weirdest, most ridiculous film I've seen in a while. Taking place in 1943 during WWII, the movie opens with the protagonist, a young woman dressed in an Airforce uniform, boarding a military craft as it taxies for take off. She claims to be a mechanic and pilot herself and is carrying a small leather box which she claims contains top secret cargo, and she has orders signed by a high ranking officer ordering the crew to transport her on the flight.
To say that the crew treats her poorly would be a massive understatement. Almost to a man their attitude is deeply hostile and misogynistic, which may or may not be historically accurate, I don't know. It feels over the top, but we are talking about the 1940s so who knows. In any case, for some reason, they claim it's because "all of the stations are full" but this feels like a pretty thin rationale, they order her to relinquish her package and get into the Sperry. For those unfamiliar with WWII military aircraft the Sperry is one of the machine gun turrets on an aircraft that's sort of like a glass bubble welded onto the bottom of the plane. It's a claustrophobic little space with transparent walls and a terrifying view of the open sky beneath where a soldier would sit to fire at enemy aircraft.
While down there she listens on the intercom to some more extraordinarily crude banter from the crew about her before noticing something on the plane which she describes as a "shadow" as well as an enemy aircraft dipping in and out of the clouds near the plane. She warns the crew about both but is quickly dismissed until the aircraft is suddenly attacked. Things escalate quickly as she discovers she can't open the hatch to exit the Sperry and must use the tools available to her to improvise a defense against two enemies.
Eventually the contents of her cargo are revealed as well as her true backstory, which is that her name is Maude and she has a background I won't go into for the sake of spoilers except to say that it isn't what she claimed and that she was seeking to escape a danger.
Around here the action kicks into high gear as Maude tries to survive more attacks on the aircraft. It quickly becomes apparent that this is a movie about female empowerment as she undergoes extreme risk to keep her and her cargo safe, calmly tackling threats while the men often literally cower in terror. It's a little on the nose, but I wouldn't really have a problem with it if they had matched her backstory to her actions. As it is, her actions just don't mesh in the slightest with her backstory; over the course of the film we'll see her display expertise in Airforce combat, perform incredible feats of strength as she maneuvers around the plane, fly the craft under emergency conditions, and fight like Rambo in hand to hand combat against a deadly enemy, none of which are skills suggested by her character's background,
It begs the question of where Maude developed such a wide range of skills. In the movies logic it's simply because she's determined enough to just do it, but of course life just doesn't work that way so it ends up really stretching that suspension of disbelief hard. It also sort of calls into question the reason Maude got onto the plane in the first place. Given that we've seen her fight like a one person army, it begs the question of whether she would have needed to board the aircraft to begin with since it appears there's almost nothing she can't handle personally anyway.
The reality is that her background and her actions in the film are completely disconnected. Her backstory is there to make her relatable and encourage the audience to feel sympathy for her while her superpowers are just what's convenient for conquering all of the threats thrown against her during the film. Chloë Grace Moretz, who plays Maude, is of course famous for her role in the Kick A** films playing a character who should be vulnerable in real life but by virtue of special training is actually far more deadly than she appears. Here though there is no suggestion of a similar background; she just sort of has her superpowers with no real explanation provided. This, combined with an array of stunts that make James Bond look like a wimp, combines to produce moments that are meant to be tense but come off as almost comical instead, including one scene in particular showing her re-entering the plane that is nothing short of pure absurdist fantasy (if you've seen the film you definitely know which scene I'm talking about and if you haven't you'll recognize it immediately when it happens).
In the end, ridiculous or not, the action sequences are mostly nicely shot and the movie has decent pacing that keeps things from getting dull, so the movie isn't painful to watch, just filled with a bunch a scenes that will make you roll your eyes. Acting-wise most of the cast are one dimensional characters and only Ms. Moretz gets much chance to display any range, but her charisma and acting chops are good enough to at least make you root for her, even if you're aware that she's clearly never in any real danger. I'd say it's basically a forgettable flick that you can waste a couple of hours on when you've got some time to kill, but don't go in looking for an instant classic.
To say that the crew treats her poorly would be a massive understatement. Almost to a man their attitude is deeply hostile and misogynistic, which may or may not be historically accurate, I don't know. It feels over the top, but we are talking about the 1940s so who knows. In any case, for some reason, they claim it's because "all of the stations are full" but this feels like a pretty thin rationale, they order her to relinquish her package and get into the Sperry. For those unfamiliar with WWII military aircraft the Sperry is one of the machine gun turrets on an aircraft that's sort of like a glass bubble welded onto the bottom of the plane. It's a claustrophobic little space with transparent walls and a terrifying view of the open sky beneath where a soldier would sit to fire at enemy aircraft.
While down there she listens on the intercom to some more extraordinarily crude banter from the crew about her before noticing something on the plane which she describes as a "shadow" as well as an enemy aircraft dipping in and out of the clouds near the plane. She warns the crew about both but is quickly dismissed until the aircraft is suddenly attacked. Things escalate quickly as she discovers she can't open the hatch to exit the Sperry and must use the tools available to her to improvise a defense against two enemies.
Eventually the contents of her cargo are revealed as well as her true backstory, which is that her name is Maude and she has a background I won't go into for the sake of spoilers except to say that it isn't what she claimed and that she was seeking to escape a danger.
Around here the action kicks into high gear as Maude tries to survive more attacks on the aircraft. It quickly becomes apparent that this is a movie about female empowerment as she undergoes extreme risk to keep her and her cargo safe, calmly tackling threats while the men often literally cower in terror. It's a little on the nose, but I wouldn't really have a problem with it if they had matched her backstory to her actions. As it is, her actions just don't mesh in the slightest with her backstory; over the course of the film we'll see her display expertise in Airforce combat, perform incredible feats of strength as she maneuvers around the plane, fly the craft under emergency conditions, and fight like Rambo in hand to hand combat against a deadly enemy, none of which are skills suggested by her character's background,
It begs the question of where Maude developed such a wide range of skills. In the movies logic it's simply because she's determined enough to just do it, but of course life just doesn't work that way so it ends up really stretching that suspension of disbelief hard. It also sort of calls into question the reason Maude got onto the plane in the first place. Given that we've seen her fight like a one person army, it begs the question of whether she would have needed to board the aircraft to begin with since it appears there's almost nothing she can't handle personally anyway.
The reality is that her background and her actions in the film are completely disconnected. Her backstory is there to make her relatable and encourage the audience to feel sympathy for her while her superpowers are just what's convenient for conquering all of the threats thrown against her during the film. Chloë Grace Moretz, who plays Maude, is of course famous for her role in the Kick A** films playing a character who should be vulnerable in real life but by virtue of special training is actually far more deadly than she appears. Here though there is no suggestion of a similar background; she just sort of has her superpowers with no real explanation provided. This, combined with an array of stunts that make James Bond look like a wimp, combines to produce moments that are meant to be tense but come off as almost comical instead, including one scene in particular showing her re-entering the plane that is nothing short of pure absurdist fantasy (if you've seen the film you definitely know which scene I'm talking about and if you haven't you'll recognize it immediately when it happens).
In the end, ridiculous or not, the action sequences are mostly nicely shot and the movie has decent pacing that keeps things from getting dull, so the movie isn't painful to watch, just filled with a bunch a scenes that will make you roll your eyes. Acting-wise most of the cast are one dimensional characters and only Ms. Moretz gets much chance to display any range, but her charisma and acting chops are good enough to at least make you root for her, even if you're aware that she's clearly never in any real danger. I'd say it's basically a forgettable flick that you can waste a couple of hours on when you've got some time to kill, but don't go in looking for an instant classic.