actually quite descent

This fictional WW1 dogfighting movie is 'loosely' based on the the Lafayette Escadrille squadraon, a French squadron that consisted of of American fighter pilots. And its true that casualities were heavy, but also true that did a lot of kills themselves, with 11 of them becoming aces. The 'loose' part is that the characters portrayed in the film are not based on any specific individuals. For example, the black pilot never was in Lafayette, although he was american and joined another french squadron, and after US entered WW1, he was barred from flying because he was black. So although he was never in this US squadron, I can see why writers of this film decided to lump him in, to tell a few historic stories all in one film withouth going into too much detail.

And even though the aerial dogfights were obviously 100% CGI, and some of the moves the made were too sudden, too fast, and not how a biplane would react, it still was a great blast to watch. Even the love story between the rookie US ace and a french country girl was at least bearable to watch, unlike the crap love triangle forced down our throats in 'Pearl Harbour'.

The reason I knocked it down a few to a 7/10 rating is pretty much all the stories were so scripted, it has a definitive 'Hollywood' stench to it. Case in point, the rich kid who refused to bunk up with the 'negro' pilot. and later in movie, when the black guy saves the rich kid's life, you get the mandatory 'forgiveness' scene as he offers up his expensive 100 year old booze bottle to his new black friend. awwwwwwww. how cute... and utterly predictable. And this gets repeated over and over between every characters that has a beef or grievance with some other character. There was also one unbelievably bad acting part, where the actor who portrays the black pilot speak little english at beginning of film (native tongue was supposed to be French) and yet later on, he's in the barracks talking like a brotha from da hood, g!

Overall, a great popcorn flick, and I think the main reason I liked this film despite its flaws is the subject, ww1 dogfighting, has never been done to this extent before, and it reminded me of all the times i played 'Red Baron' video game as a kid. Heck, they even had a Zeppelin raid! sweet...

7/10