Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

Flyboys Blu-ray Movie Review

A fun and rare WWI flick makes for an outstanding Blu-ray.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman January 10, 2008

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 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

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.

Flyboys Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

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.

Flyboys Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

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.

Flyboys Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

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.