A waste of celluloid.

Martin Scorsese established himself as one of the best directors in Hollywood. With each new movie the crazed Scorsese fanatics praise the movie like it's the second coming.

When I watched The Aviator I was never a fan or hater of Scorsese. I am fond of some of his movies for sure. GoodFellas in particular is still a superb piece of movie-making. I had heard so much appraisal of The Aviator and decided that it was time for me to see what the ruckus is about. Unfortunately my viewing concluded with feeling of dissatisfaction and boredom.

This biopic of eccentric rich lunatic Howard Hughes is 3 hours of complete and utter monotony! After about the first half an hour I was already tempted to drift off to sleep. But I kept telling myself that there must be something interesting about to occur. Nothing interesting or engaging ever did occur. When the film ended I was glad that I could finally roll over and go to sleep. I watched this film with my parents. We sometimes have conflicting views on the quality of a movie. With this film we all agreed strongly that The Aviator is pointless and extraordinarily boring! In my opinion I can't see anyone being interested unless they're a specialist in aviation.

Leonardo DiCaprio plays Howard Hughes as the film chronicles his life during the 1940s. As the film opens he's in the middle of making a movie called Hell's Angels. That's the only interesting part of the movie. I thought that the first half an hour was quite captivating. The filmmaking process had me interested because it had an interesting story to tell. But from there everything went downhill; I didn't see any evidence of a plot, I never found anything at all interesting.

The Aviator is stretched out beyond all belief, dull and devoid of any life. DiCaprio is tragically distracting in the title role. He has done some mediocre work in the past, and some good work. We can add this film to his list of mediocre performances. Everything seemed so forced and contrived. He tries but modestly fails. That's the bottom line. Cate Blanchett, on the other hand, was truly magnificent in her role. It's just such a shame she disappears after the first half. Blanchett was understandably presented with an Oscar. She was flawless. Maybe if Scorsese used her properly she could have saved the film.

The screenplay must have weighed a tonne. It's loads and loads of dialogue lacking any emotional spine. This makes the film seem very shallow, disingenuous and cursory.

I thought that the cinematography and the special effects looked fantastic. I was disappointed with the limited opportunities to showcase such breathtaking cinematography. It seems that there was potential in every aspect of the filmmaking; it's just that Scorsese under-uses all his solid resources.

The Aviator had everything going for it - it's a biopic of an extraordinary man with a good cast and a great director. But it is not in the least bit entertaining or interesting. This is another classic case of focusing on aspects of the story rather than the entertainment value for the viewer. Leave this one on the shelf...for your own good and well-being. Overrated, over-hyped, long, convoluted and incredibly boring. The Aviator will put you to sleep. (People who suffer from insomnia...go buy it!)