Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Magic of Flight Blu-ray Movie Review

Up and away into the wild Blu-ray yonder…

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater March 13, 2010

As a kid, I memorized the silhouettes of WWII aircraft so I could pretend I was on lookout for incoming Japanese fighters. I built balsa wood models of Fokkers and Sopwith Camels—the biplanes that ruled the skies during The Great War—and wrote stories for my sixth grade language arts class about a squadron of scrappy British pilots stationed at a muddy airfield outside of Versailles. I considered myself a self-studied engineer of paper airplanes, having graduated from the simple designs that all school kids know to complex constructions, made up of tight origami folds and weighted with paper clips. To put it mildly, I was a massive dork of the first order. But I say all of that to say this: the young, bespectacled me would’ve loved The Magic of Flight, would’ve watched it on repeat even, stuck in a near comatose state of open-mouthed, aviation-fueled bliss. The short version of this review, then, is that if you have a junior aviator-in-the-making in your household—the sort that wants a subscription to Air & Space magazine for his birthday and always asks flight attendants for a pair of those plastic pilot wings—The Magic of Flight is a safe bet for video edutainment.

The Blue Angels

The allure will be slightly lessened for adults, as The Magic of Flight isn’t on the top tier of IMAX films, but it does offer more than a few substantial thrills for anyone interested in aviation. Narrated by Magnum P.I. himself, Tom Selleck, the majority of the film is spent following the U.S. Navy’s famed Blue Angels, a team of hotshot pilots who, for three months out of the year, train over the desert of the American southwest, making two “hops” a day, six days per week. They make what they do in the sky look easy—the extremely tight formations, the synchronized banks and rolls, the impeccably choreographed aerobatic maneuvers—but their artistry in the air is the product of strict repetition, an intense physical training regime, and a whole lot of faith in the talents of their wingmen. There’s really not much room for error when you’re traveling over 500 mph with the wing of an F/A-18 “Hornet” less than two feet from your cockpit canopy. The “Right Stuff,” indeed. We go to an air show, where these elite flyers are rightfully treated like rock stars—though, as they chat with overawed grade-school kids, they seem noticeably down to earth—and watch them tear up the sky, doing some truly insane stunts. It’s not all high-flying fun and games, though. When the Blue Angels aren’t performing on the air show circuit, they’re regular servicemen, and the film takes us on board an aircraft carrier to give us a lesson on how to land a multi-million dollar fighter jet on an area the size of a small parking lot.

Occasionally, The Magic of Flight leaves the supersonic flock of Blue Angels behind and explores other winged topics. A CGI goose is used to show how wings create lift, and we see a computer simulation of the drag created by various parts of a biplane. Tom Crouch, of the Smithsonian Institution, explains the concepts of pitch, roll, and yaw, and demonstrates with a model how the Wright brothers learned to control their first craft in the air. Then, it’s off to Kitty Hawk, where Selleck narrates the story of the Wright brothers’ first sustained powered flight in 1903. There are even a few slightly comic interludes, like seeing one fighter pilot grunt and wince with constipated fervor in an attempt to keep blood in his brain so that he doesn’t black out during a high-g maneuver. The most impressive footage is of aerobatic pilots Patty Wagstaff and Sean Tucker as they let their stunt planes tumble end over end high above the slack-jawed crowd. Tucker even does a crazy trick where he goes into a vertical climb, purposefully stalls at the top, and then flies his plane backwards for 500 feet before flipping around and leveling out.

When you’ve only got 40 minutes to educate and entertain, a tight script is absolutely necessary, but you can probably tell from my description that The Magic of Flight isn’t quite as focused as some other IMAX films. I think it would’ve worked better if they had just called it The Blue Angels, as the film’s attempts to shoehorn a lesson about the mechanics and history of flight into such a short feature come off as underdeveloped. On the other hand, the stunning aerial footage captured by director Greg MacGillivray goes a long way to overcome the documentary’s narrative shortcomings. MacGillivray has shot more 70mm film in his career than anyone else on the planet—more than two million feet, apparently, including the famous opening sequence of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining—and he’s always devising groundbreaking new IMAX techniques and technologies. In The Magic of Flight, he partnered with aeronautical big-shots McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) to develop special cowlings for the IMAX cameras that he mounted on Navy F/A-18s. These allowed him to get never-before-accomplished footage from directly behind the plane’s cockpit and even between the landing gear. The point-of- view shots are intense—especially the aircraft carrier take-off and landing—so if you’ve got a really large screen and you’re prone to nausea, you might want to sit this one out. For us birds of a feather, though, it’s quite a ride.

Magic of Flight Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Magic of Flight takes off on Blu-ray with a 1080p/VC-1 encoded transfer that generally keeps pace with the documentary's lofty visuals. Shot in 1996, the film doesn't look as clean or crisp as more modern large-format productions, but have you ever seen an IMAX film that looks outright bad on Blu-ray? I know I haven't. The biggest thing holding back the presentation here is that the print is occasionally dotted with white specks, black flecks, and other bits of debris. Grain looks fine and untouched, though, and there's not much on the technical front to sully the experience, aside from a handful of errant but largely non-distracting artifacts. Like I said, the image isn't the crispest IMAX I've seen—the frequently used fisheye lenses just aren't consistently sharp throughout the frame—but a 70mm negative transferred into 1080p is still going to display a lot of detail, no matter which way you slice it. Black levels are deep, contrast is tight but never overdone, and colors are natural and nicely saturated, with sky blues and Blue Angel blues looking especially vivid.

Magic of Flight Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There's plenty to be impressed by here, as The Magic of Flight's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track both rumbles with the expected thunder of jet engines and gives off a surprising amount of detail in less powerful sounds, like a flock of birds taking off from a marsh, filling the soundfield with their squawks and flapping wings. The surround speakers are activated frequently, with lots of fluid cross-channel movements, and the country/rock/inspirational score swelling from all directions. The instruments all have a satisfying presence, most notably the slide guitar, and Tom Selleck's narration rides cleanly over the rest of the mix.

Magic of Flight Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Making Of (SD, 42:54)
Yes, the making of documentary is actually longer than the actual film, and in a way, it's also more interesting, as we get a more in-depth look at each segment, from shooting on the deck of an aircraft carrier, to the challenges—mostly incredible patience—of filming birds in the wild. As an aviation nerd and a camera geek, I also loved learning about how the producers, with the help of McDonnell Douglas, spent nearly a year and close to $1 million custom fitting IMAX camera mounts for F/A-18s. I was a bit disappointed, however, to find out that they faked the "flat spin" segment, which was actually shot on the ground, with a cockpit attached to a turntable—though I understand why they wouldn't want to risk a pilot's life by having him purposefully go into the most dreaded and deadly kind of stall.

Film Trivia Quiz
As has become the norm on Image Entertainment's IMAX releases, this disc includes a 10- question multiple-choice quiz that tests your knowledge of the film.

MacGillivray Freeman Films History (1080p, 7:37)
This is a history of and promo for MacGillivray Freeman Films, who have been go-to producers of IMAX movies since 1976.

About Greg MacGillivray
A text-only biography and filmographer of director and producer Greg MacGillivray.

Trailers (1080p)
Includes trailers for Journey Into Amazing Caves, The Magic of Flight, The Living Sea, Mystery of the Nile, Greece: Secrets of the Past, Hurricane on the Bayou, Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk, The Alps, Dolphins, Amazon, Super Speedway, Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag, and Volcanoes of the Deep Sea.

BD-Live Functionality

Magic of Flight Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Armchair-flyers, IMAX enthusiasts, and once and future pilots should all find something to like in The Magic of Flight, but whether or not the 40-minute feature is worth a purchase depends on your personal tastes. I'd advise either tracking down the trailer online or renting first.