Get High on The Aviator

One of the best things about The Aviator is how extravagantly it lives up to its title. It is a film about an aviator, and it has many grand, excellent scenes involving aviation. If you ask me, these are the best sequences director Martin Scorsese captures in the film. I was immediately drawn in when we got to see Leonardo DiCaprio (as Howard Hughes) thousands of feet in the air, filming tens of airplanes shooting at each other (or pretending to do so, anyway). Of course, all of this was done with cheap, safe green screens, but the graphics are so well drawn, it's nearly impossible not to be mesmerized. There are more aviation scenes throughout the film, and they are always its most enrapturing and tense.

Sometimes, doesn't it just seem like a certain film stars all of Hollywood? The Aviator is one of those films. Check out the cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Kate Beckinsale, John C. Reilly, Alan Alda, Ian Holm, Gwen Stefani, and Willem Dafoe. This is ridiculous, and it can be distracting, but all of the actors fulfill their roles very well. One interesting thing I should point out is that when I saw the character of Glenn Odekirk, I thought, "Hey, it's Barry Pepper." It actually turned out to be Matt Ross. But what's interesting is that Pepper was originally scheduled to play Odekirk. The men resemble each other remarkably.

DiCaprio, thanks to the popularity of Titanic, will probably never be realized as the great actor that he is. Seriously, this guy is remarkable. I'd go so far to say he's one of the greatest Hollywood actors alive. I've never seen him deliver a bad line; he gets the cheesiest crap and always pulls it off. Hughes was notorious for being a nut, and DiCaprio convinces us (I keep getting this urge to type DiCrapio, but I think I'm holding off pretty well). And I should mention that Cate Blanchett should most definitely get Best Actress for her portrayal of Katharine Hepburn. The second this woman marched on screen, I just couldn't stop thinking of how impressed I was with her performance. It was spectacular; better than Leo's, I might even venture to say. And damn, does this film have some hotties. I wasn't finding Kate Beckinsale too attractive in Van Helsing, but here... well, it's a different story. And who is this Kelly Garner chick? She's frickin' beautiful! I'd like to see her in some more roles (here she played some 15-year old, even though Garner is truly 20). Also... Jude Law is just in too many movies. I suggest he retires now, before we all get sick of him.

Howard Hughes, in case you are uninformed, was an Aviator. Back in his hey-day (the 1930s-40s), there was a race between corporations to build the fastest, coolest, jet-streamiest flying plane. Hughes, having a lot of cash, usually won the competition, p*ssing off Pan-American (Hughes owned Trans World Airlines). Juan Trippe, the Pan-Am big man, tried to rid the world of Hughes through politics and negotiation (Alan Alda plays Senator Brewster, one of Trippe's cronies). But no, you can't stop Hughes, and he more or less owns the world at one point in time. Because of his power, he's able to date chicks like Hepburn and Ava Gardner (Beckinsale). Of course, if you're going to make a movie about someone, there has to be some flaw about them, and Hughes has a very extreme form of obsessive-compulsive disorder, which causes him to fixate his mind on constant sanitation. He also often finds himself repeating the same words over and over again, and those scenes are just... messed up.

Scorsese is a good director, and he's notorious for making good movies. But I really don't think he's a... great... director. At least, not anymore. I really loved "Taxi Driver", and have yet to see "Raging Bull", but his more recent films haven't been particularly spectacular. Of course, this may due to script. The first forty minutes of Gangs of New York were mundane and boring, but the latter part of it was sheer brilliance. "The Aviator" is an excellent, five-star film, but just barely. I don't think it's good enough to be truly remembered twenty years from now, and I don't think it deserves Best Picture (though the films that do receive it rarely deserve it either). I should probably not mention the Academy. They are not worth my time. Paul Giamatti didn't even get a Best Actor nomination. Bastards.

Rating: A-

Note: I didn't go into much description about Hughes' crash scene. This scene is insane, and just thinking about it makes me uncomfortable. Watching the crash itself just hell, but watching the aftermath... oh, its horrible. It is "The Aviator"'s most effective sequence.