The Aviator (2004)

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Brilliant and touching

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

The AviatorMartin Scorsese pulls you into his late 1920's world like a charm with the help of interesting characters floating around it but beyond that it only offers different episodes of the lead character which may come off as a party stopper for a runtime of 170 minutes.

I really wish there was an option for zero stars because this garbage is that bad. It is so boring that at the end of the film you have to check your pulse to make sure you have not died of boredom. How the budget for this film was so high is beyond me since two hours of it takes place in a single room with barely any dialogue. The movie drags, drags, drags, and just when you think there is light at the end of the tunnel and that it is over it drags on long. It is almost three hours of absolutely painful torture. This is hands down the absolute worst film I have ever seen. The film is about Howard Hughs and his OCD, but even as someone with OCD myself I still could not appreciate any of this. (And his case was portrayed to be very extreme by the way.) There was absolutely no reason for this movie to drag on for three hours it could have been wrapped up in an hour and a half. It drags on since it is supposed to be a "masterpiece" but it is horrible. Hands down this is one of the absolute worst and torturous movies I have ever had to sit through. Terrible

Martin Scorsese's films all have a distinctive style and tone to them so it's always been nice to see him change things up a bit and while this most certainly has hints of his style The Aviator was a nice departure from his usually films and I can honestly say that I enjoyed this film though it's not without its flaws. Easily the best thing about this film is the central performance of Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes, DiCaprio just brings a presence to Hughes making him very charismatic yet charming, his character is never dull to watch and it's always interesting to watch. Mainly because his breakdown into near insanity is so well done, its built up slowly across the films run-time so that when that pivotal moment where he loses his mind it feels merited. If I'm honest I've never been the biggest fan of Cate Blanchett but I can honestly say that I thought she was excellent in this movie, not only was her character just extremely entertaining she had such good chemistry with DiCaprio and her romance with him joint with their gradual parting is done perfectly. The Aviator it set from the mid 30s to the late 40s and the production design joint along with the Costume Design are immaculate, it sucks you right into this period. The actual aviation scenes themselves sequences themselves are very well done, the green screen is completely convincing and they're built up just right so that we understand just how much they mean to Hughes. However if I'm honest while this film is far to well acted and executed to be bad I do think this film is a little overrated. For one while the central character is developed perfectly and given good and clear motivations for his actions the other characters in this film have very little reasoning behind their actions so when they start their attacks against Hughes they don't feel earned and this makes this entire arc fall a bit flat. Another thing this film doesn't do very well is make you feel much sympathy for Hughes, because he's such an unlikable character it doesn't really make you care that much that he has so much at stake. However after this arc finishes I enjoyed the final act and DiCaprios haunting last "The Way of The Future" monologue was extremely haunting that did make me feel sympathy for him unlike the previous act of the film. I do like The Aviator, both DiCaprio and Blanchett are both amazing in this film, it's a fantastic period piece but ultimately where it succeeds with its central character it ultimately fails with the Supporting making for a lot of this film coming of as unsatisfactory. But it's definitely a good film and would recommend it to any fan of Scorsese's work. 72%/B

Can the outsized ambition of one of Hollywood's biggest legends smash Hollywood convention and make a picture for the ages? How about two legends, then? Star Leonardo DiCaprio and director Martin Scorsese give it a ride, anyway.Howard Hughes inherited a lot of money and a fear of germs. Enjoying the first before the second tears him apart, he sets about making a movie that runs up seven-figure bills in 1927, then scraps it and remakes it for sound. "Hell's Angels" turns out quite a hit, but Hughes has already moved on to other passions, building experimental planes and bedding Hollywood starlets. Sure it sounds like fun, but can he survive the crash landings?One of his lovers, Katharine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett), puts it this way: "There's too much Howard Hughes in Howard Hughes. That's the trouble."That's the trouble with "The Aviator," too. Taking a 20-year wedge of Hughes' life that incorporated everything from round-the-world flights to building a transcontinental airline, the movie struggles for a focus. In a five-minute span, we see Hughes design a monoplane, take Jean Harlow to a film premiere, and found a future mega-business, Hughes Aircraft. Scorsese is in a hurry to dazzle you with overlit sequences and fuzzy CGI.DiCaprio's ascension to the ranks of Hollywood's elite seems to have been the true focus of this film. He's fine, too, shedding his youthful image with an eerie approximation of Hughes' Texas drawl that is equal parts authority and anxiety. I just felt there were times when too much of the director's attention was on having Leo do an acting clinic and show the Oscar people something. He's best here working off other people, namely Alan Alda as a nasty senator named Brewster set on bringing Hughes down.Alda was nominated for an Oscar; Blanchett won one, either her first or Hepburn's fifth. It's a clenched, tinny performance, i. e. true to life and hard to take for more than a few minutes at a time. Fortunately, Kate/Cate makes an early exit, albeit not soon enough for me. What was the point of her character, anyway? If she's supposed to represent Hughes' truest object of desire, she doesn't have the air-speed velocity.The film does improve as it goes on, reversing the Hughes experience in life. The climax is a hearing held by Brewster in which both Alda and DiCaprio show how good this film might have been had it cut out the starlets and the flying montages and just gotten to the part where Hughes takes on the country and Pan-American Airways while his growing mental issues gnaw away at him. Watching Brewster switch from wolf to sheep as Hughes finds his footing is a joy.Even in this section, though, Scorsese spends long minutes on DiCaprio raging and writhing alone in the nude in order to let us know he's really suffering, not trusting his actor to show us the same thing in numerous small moments where the story is being advanced as well. The film is never boring, just muddled and straining at a significance it doesn't reach. Like one of Hughes' most famous creations, the giant airplane nicknamed the "Spruce Goose" which "The Aviator" climaxes with, what you have here is an overloaded creation that struggles to get in the air, and doesn't stay up long.