I have been enamored of WWI flying machines for as long as I can remember. At a guess I would say that Snoopy’s imaginary battles with the Red Baron was my first fueled this passion. Anything with WWI or II aircraft and dirigibles grabs my attention. If you want to know just how geeky I can get about them all you have to do is read my review of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow or get me started talking about one of my favorite computer games of all time, Crimson Skies. It should not come as a surprise then that I wanted to see Flyboys on the big screen.

Flyboys is based on the lives of several young men who fought in WWI.

In 1917, prior to the official entry into the war by the United States, the Allied powers of France, England and Italy were on the ropes against the German juggernaut. Some altruistic young Americans volunteered to fight alongside their counterparts in France. Some joined the infantry, others chose the Ambulance Corps. But 38 young men had a different idea: they decided to learn how to fly. This fighting force became known as the Lafayette Escadrille. The film follows these men as they join the fight for various reasons, learn to fly, and engage the enemy in battle. That amounts to a great deal of ground to cover in one film which results in the overall story being the weakest part of the film. The film is not bad, but it drags noticeably at times and could have been so much better.

The film has a very nice cast. James Franco, Martin Henderson, Phillip Winchester, Michael Jibson, Abdul Salis, Tyler Labine, and Lex Shrapnel (yes, that is his name) all do a fair job playing various pilots in the war. Jennifer Decker is a stand out in her first feature film as Lucienne, the eventual love interest to Franco’s Blaine Rawlings. Jean Reno is an actor that I always enjoy and he does a fine job as the company leader, Captain Thenault. My only complaint with the acting is the same complaint I have with the story. There simply isn’t enough time to establish a relationship with each of these characters. The acting itself is good and you do begin to care somewhat about the characters but by the time they start to become more than one dimensional characters the film is over. This is a real shame considering the fact that this film is based on men who actually lived and died over the skies of France.

The flying scenes are where this film really soars. When these bi and tri wing planes fly it is marvelous to behold. Some of the aerial shots are from just the right angle to give your stomach a jolt and the dogfight scenes are fantastic. The way the film is shot during those scenes make this film worth seeing despite its shortcomings. I cannot say enough good things about this aspect of the film. In addition to these scenes I really enjoyed the scene where the men chose and painted their own unique emblems on the side of their planes. Airplane art has always fascinated me and this was a nice moment in the film.

The settings, scenery and color palette were fantastic also. The countryside was beautiful both when the actors were on the ground and in the air. The film had just the right hue and tone to make it feel like a historical picture.

The story feels like several individual tales that were shot and spliced together to make a film which is where the amount of characters they were trying to portray and the lack of time to do that adequately made the film suffer. I wish that they could have found a more talented writer to pull all these elements together because Flyboys really is only a few pen strokes away from being a great film in my opinion.

Overall I would probably give the film 3 out of 5 stars. It will probably lose a bit of its luster if not seen on the big screen but should still be an entertaining rental if you don’t get out to see it. There are several entertaining and enjoyable moments in the film, it is well shot and fairly well acted, and it is beautiful to look at. Afterwards I wanted nothing more than to rush home and fire up Crimson Skies to do some dogfighting of my own.