Flyboys

Were it not for the sheer novelty of the concept (When was the last time you saw a movie set during World War I instead of the more famous second War?), Flyboys would be completely devoid of any imagination whatsoever. Underdeveloped, overblown, and lacking in even the most basic character developments, the film is a misguided flightless bird of a movie that fails to generate even the smallest of thrills. Despite a nearly two and a half hour running time, actor-turned-filmmaker Tony Bill refuses to let his audience get even remotely close to his cast or his story. In the end, Flyboys comes across as a lot of fancy special effects and lost potential.

The film centers on Blaine Rawlings (James Franco), a hot-headed and hot-tempered young country boy who joins the French-based air force as an American volunteer after his family ranch is foreclosed. With the Germans gaining the upper ground with each passing day in the first World War, it will be up to Rawlings and his fellow volunteers to combat the enemy forces by the air. The other volunteers come from all walks of life, and seem to hail from a hack writer's handbook to military personality types. There's the spoiled fat guy who comes from a wealthy family, the meek religious guy who does nothing but quote the Bible and sing "Onward Christian Soldiers" nonstop every time he's fighting the enemy, and of course, there's the black guy who gave up a rising career as a boxer in the hopes that he could do something greater with his life. During his time on the battlefield, Rawlings will romance a pretty young French woman (Jennifer Decker), shoot down a lot of planes, and not very much else, since that's all there is to this paper thin story trying to pass itself off as a war epic.

In a technical sense, Flyboys looks like a million. This was obviously a big budget production, and every dollar the project sucked up is right there on the screen. From the brilliantly realized aerial dogfight scenes, to the accurate costumes and set designs for the era, this movie is a wonder to look at. The computer animation used during the more complex battle scenes and in bringing these ancient fighting planes to life is near flawless. Walking in, I was worried that some of these sequences might come across as cheesy or fake like a video game. Fortunately, the look of the film is realistic and genuine throughout. All of the aircraft were obviously recreated with care, from the smallest planes to the massive German zeppelin that appears during a mission late in the film. This is a movie that will probably be benefit from the "Mute" option on your TV remote when it comes out on DVD, so you can concentrate on the images, and not on the cornball script that sounds like something that's been sitting on some studio's shelf for the past 40 years or so, got dusted off, and given the full big budget treatment. From the sometimes laughable dialogue ("You don't look like a prostitute..."), to the overly dramatic music cues provided by composer Trevor Rabin (As soon as it's announced someone on the team might be a German spy, the music rams the note home by playing a short, melodramatic cue on the soundtrack.), Flyboys is about as subtle as a lead pipe to the noggin when it comes to drama.

Maybe I wouldn't mind so much if the characters were worth caring about even just a little. Unfortunately, the screenplay by Phil Sears, Blake T. Evans and David S. Ward seems it could really care less about the people who populate its story. Lead character Rawlings is probably the blandest and least threatening "rebel" to ever shake things up. He tries to talk tough, but the performance by James Franco seems more like he's bored and uninterested. The other members of his team get short introduction sequences where we see them leaving for the War, and then they are pretty much ignored immediately afterward. No genuine relationships or bonds are created on or off the battlefield, which is odd, since the comradeship that these men shared seems to be the main dramatic selling point of this movie. After every battle, Rawlings goes to the local bar and mopes over the people who died. Not only do we never quite understand why he is so downhearted, since he seems to have spent all of three minutes with most of his fallen soldiers, it also allows the movie to fall into a monotonous pattern from which it never escapes. The guys fight a battle, return to base and go to the bar to mourn over the latest casualty, Rawlings goes off to have a little fling with the French women and play with the orphans that she is looking after, go back up to the air to fight again, and then the process starts all over again and repeats for the next 130 minutes. The movie tries to mix things up with a possible spy subplot, or the French woman having to go on the run because of German occupation of her home, but the movie never quite leaves the rut it makes for itself.

Because of this approach, every performance in this movie comes across as underperformed and forgettable. Yes, they're fighting a losing battle of their own against an uninspired script, but that certainly doesn't excuse some of the performances on display, especially Jean Reno as the air squad's Captain, who strangely does not bring forth even the slightest bit of authority in his presence, and seems way too forgiving and meek to be a commanding figure. In one scene, Rawlings steals a plane so that he can fly off and rescue his love from the approaching Germans. Does the Captain yell at him? Does he even scold him? Nope. He just shakes his head, and gives him a medal for breaking just about every regulation, and endangering the lives of not only himself, but many others. The rest of the cast barely registers due to the fact they don't even have any personalities outside of their introductory scenes. The performances are passable enough, I guess, but they come across as character types rather than real people. French actress Jennifer Decker makes a sweet and attractive love interest in her first US film role, but even she seems like less than she should, since her role mainly requires her to make longing eyes at Franco's character in every scene.

Flyboys is as bland and tasteless as white bread, and probably holds about as much nutritional content for your brain. The movie is stuffed with self importance, but it's all built around a shaky script that can barely hold up a movie this long. Only the visuals and the impressive dogfight sequences save this one from being sent straight to the garbage pile. You get the sense that the filmmakers discovered they could do some really impressive dogfight scenes, and then tried to make a movie around it. You can obviously see where all the attention went. When all is said and done, Flyboys is nothing more than a very long technical demo. A very impressive technical demo, mind you, but one that goes on for far too long and just doesn't have anything to say.

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