I have no choice but to give the movie one star, but that's only because it's the lowest option available. This movie really has to work its way up to that one star.
This is a story that deserves to be told. This isn't the movie to tell it. 1995's The Tuskegee Airmen is an infinitely better story.
The CGI is comical. If you've watched one episode of Dogfights and have ever seen real WWII footage, you know that this pales by comparison to either one.
A little of the jargon has entered common usage, "He's on your six" and even though men are supposed to be in the midst of battle with talented German pilots who are here reduced to cartoon characters, the American bomber pilots manage to make sure the audience knows how hip they are to period phraseology.
Planes fly apart in all-too-predictable ways, but since we're supposed to be impressed by the horror of war, everybody is exploding in B-17s with collapsible wings and beautiful flowing fire trails that bear little resemblance to the way a plane would go down.
Guys are getting killed all over the place, but those right next to them seem emotionally unaffected.
Worst of all, before the Redtails, fighters are portrayed as a bunch of perpetual juveniles looking to rake up points toward Ace rather than providing cover. To say that it's nonsensical and insulting in the extreme as well as historically inaccurate is the grossest imaginable understatement.
I wanted to like this movie, but I'm disappointed beyond adequate words.
This is a story that deserves to be told. This isn't the movie to tell it. 1995's The Tuskegee Airmen is an infinitely better story.
The CGI is comical. If you've watched one episode of Dogfights and have ever seen real WWII footage, you know that this pales by comparison to either one.
A little of the jargon has entered common usage, "He's on your six" and even though men are supposed to be in the midst of battle with talented German pilots who are here reduced to cartoon characters, the American bomber pilots manage to make sure the audience knows how hip they are to period phraseology.
Planes fly apart in all-too-predictable ways, but since we're supposed to be impressed by the horror of war, everybody is exploding in B-17s with collapsible wings and beautiful flowing fire trails that bear little resemblance to the way a plane would go down.
Guys are getting killed all over the place, but those right next to them seem emotionally unaffected.
Worst of all, before the Redtails, fighters are portrayed as a bunch of perpetual juveniles looking to rake up points toward Ace rather than providing cover. To say that it's nonsensical and insulting in the extreme as well as historically inaccurate is the grossest imaginable understatement.
I wanted to like this movie, but I'm disappointed beyond adequate words.