Breandan
09-06-2005, 12:53 AM
In summation- sexy planes, sexy woman, good action flick, not really stunning, though. Good twist in the "evil AI" plot, though, and I will give them kudos for that.
More detailed review- Basically, and I won't give too many spoilers here, this is what I refer to as a beer and chips flick. It's fun to watch, has really cool scenes and DAMN good special effects (the carrier landings are seemless digital mix), but the plot is a bit, well, thin. A perfect "guy flick" :-)
The movie is set in the near future (2010 or thereabouts), and bases around a top-secret squadron of hyper-advanced stealth fighters with advanced AI onboard computers, etc. In the course of the movie, the squadron is tapped to help train an AI-driven UCAV (Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles, a.k.a. a drone... think a Predator drone with Johnny 5 in it), and thus the movie goes into the "evil AI" premise that has been done to death. However, the movies takes it in a direction that was rather unique, and broke the mold with that angle.
Bother the Talon fighters and the E.D.I. UCAV are based around new vehicles currently in development by various aerospace manufacturers, and though the stealth capabilities of the fighters are bunk (the design is all wrong, the actual fighters they are based on are non-stealth hypervelocity air superiority fighters capable of mach 5+), they are nevertheless based in real designs. A lot of the technology shown in this movie is a glamourized version of actual technology being developed, which makes this movie fun for the technophile. The refueling tanker idea was pretty damn cool, though :-)
In general, it's a good movie, but not memorably earth-shattering. Worth the $5.50 for a matinee at the local stadium-screen theater :-)
All in all, 7/10 :-)
More detailed review- Basically, and I won't give too many spoilers here, this is what I refer to as a beer and chips flick. It's fun to watch, has really cool scenes and DAMN good special effects (the carrier landings are seemless digital mix), but the plot is a bit, well, thin. A perfect "guy flick" :-)
The movie is set in the near future (2010 or thereabouts), and bases around a top-secret squadron of hyper-advanced stealth fighters with advanced AI onboard computers, etc. In the course of the movie, the squadron is tapped to help train an AI-driven UCAV (Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles, a.k.a. a drone... think a Predator drone with Johnny 5 in it), and thus the movie goes into the "evil AI" premise that has been done to death. However, the movies takes it in a direction that was rather unique, and broke the mold with that angle.
Bother the Talon fighters and the E.D.I. UCAV are based around new vehicles currently in development by various aerospace manufacturers, and though the stealth capabilities of the fighters are bunk (the design is all wrong, the actual fighters they are based on are non-stealth hypervelocity air superiority fighters capable of mach 5+), they are nevertheless based in real designs. A lot of the technology shown in this movie is a glamourized version of actual technology being developed, which makes this movie fun for the technophile. The refueling tanker idea was pretty damn cool, though :-)
In general, it's a good movie, but not memorably earth-shattering. Worth the $5.50 for a matinee at the local stadium-screen theater :-)
All in all, 7/10 :-)