J.Kahn wrote:
Yeah apparently the entire German airforce operated nothing but Fokker
Triplanes.

Even in the trailer the special effects looked like crap.

Flyboys is a mixed bag. Which just can't be good regardless of the
type of film. If you know anything about the history of WW1 or the
Lafayette Escadrille then it is pretty jarring to see how casually they
treat the origins of the squadron. I found the juxtaposition of
aircraft from different time frames within the war pretty
disconcerting. It is one thing to willingly suspend disbelief but when
that suspension is assaulted right away with glaring errors it is hard
to take the rest of the film seriously.

That is too bad because there really are some poignant moments and some
good acting, but it just is not consistent. Most of the sets were
pretty evocative of the war time era at least from what I have seen in
pictures and read in books. But then they do something really stupid.
Just one spoiler, in one scene a flyer's hand is trapped under the wing
of his crashed aircraft. The hero does something so amazing to free
him that I really couldn't believe the director thought it would work.
I would bet that you could have smashed up the wing of that Nieuport
and freed the flyer with no problem.

There are some shots of Gotha's and Handley Page O/400s and a Zeppelin
that looked pretty good at first glance and certainly point the way to
a future for seeing long lost aircraft in CGI.

I was disappointed overall, though my ten and 21 year old sons thought
it was good. I saw some of Saving Private Ryan again recently and
though I think that film is flawed in its plot execution it is superb
in its "look" and "feel". Flyboys doesn't measure up.

John Dupre'