The Aviator

Critics were effusive in their praise of this movie. It's a good thing we have the critics around to tell us what is a good film, because otherwise there would be no way to tell.

This is a mess of a movie, completely lacking in any show of restraint. The camera never stays in one position for more than three seconds over the entire 2 hours and 50 minutes of screen time. Scorsese uses tracks, dollies, cranes, and anything else he can think of to show off. There is no hope of being drawn into the plot when you keep getting pulled out to exclaim over the camera work.

Then there are the obvious, unbelievable process shots. Ludicrous.

Then there's the casting... Every role is played by a major name or a recognizable character actor. Many are busy portraying real celebrities like Ava Gardner, Errol Flynn, and Kate Hepburn. Mostly as broadly played caricatures without a recognizable facial resemblance in the lot.

And finally there is the story line. If you don't already know the details, God help you. I'm guessing Marty shot about 5 hours of movie and then started ripping stuff out to get it down to even an overblown run time. They set up stuff that never pays off, they leave out major followups to story arcs, and they simply drop characters for a while, who then pop up in another time and another place... seemingly at random. The story is told linearly, but you almost never have any sense of how much time has passed from one scene to another. Every half hour or so, Scorsese runs another dateline subtitle to let you know what year it is.

Don't believe the hype. Because hype is all this has.

Parents: I seem to recall a few mild swear words. That's about all that should be offensive to kids.