The Aeronauts Review- LightTrain

What’s up, I’m your conductor Gavin Nowak as usual and I’ve had a bunch of free time ever since the Train’s breaker combusted. In light of this, I settled on watching a few feature films, one of which was The Aeronauts that is streaming on Amazon Prime Video. The second movie I watched I will discuss with you, my patient readers, next week; but for now, let’s dig into this. Also, keep reading until the end of the review for the reveal of a new addition to the Train. Let’s get this show on the road!

This biography centers on meteorologist and pilot James Glaisher, who is determined to hatch up a groundbreaking idea to the World: The scientific prediction of the weather. When he is laughed off, he determines to venture into the skies to achieve his difficult goal. For this risky occasion, he is accompanied by the grief-striken baloonist Amelia Wren as an aid. Will the duo of pioneers succumb to turbulent typhoons, chilling climates, or could someone’s stirring zeal be the cause of their doom?

For your information, this plot originated from a palpable and quite deceased scientist known by the public ear as James Glaisher (Yes, Eddie Redmayne’s character). In typical Hollywood fashion, they borrow that and convolute it into a empty yet remarkably bloated high-flying thrill ride. Yet, I have to admit, it is tough to craft a biopic without filling all the facts or “whitewashing” our lead (if you weren’t aware, this is simply said updating them in a certain way where their counterparts insecurities and despicable deeds are covered up).

Thankfully, the movie doesn’t seem to do that. Thank goodness for that. Instead showing him in a light where his intense fervor tips him off his marbles a bit and if it wasn’t for Amelia’s assertiveness they both would have froze to death. The argument can rightfully be made that a ton of the events are indeed fictional, as Amelia Wren is in fact a character invented specifically for this feature. On the subject of the character of Amelia, who is played by Felicity Jones (but being a avid fan of Star Wars I just refer to her as Jyn Erso), she was obviously ment to be the stereotypical action heroine so the female viewers are entertained. I don’t continually hate Wren or Jones’ performance, but her concepts execution was equally thin as printer paper and just as flat. Well, how about Redmayne?

The two-word answer: He’s fine. This can additionally be used for the movie as a whole, since it’s as fresh as defrosted leftover pizza. Each by themselves is bland, but are they any good together? This will be quite the jiffy because, on the one hand, they DO occasionally have acceptable chemistry. Flipping to the other side, this again only varies very much off and on, so when the brief moment wraps up the audience savors it and moves on to the next scene. When these interactions are examined upon, I notice that they can toss it’s cliche’d story beats in the garbage shute and infuse it with a tad of sporadic yet solid substance.

Another piece I would enjoy tapping into is the effects. They may not be all that fluid, but that is not an issue in the slightest when they’re convincing and give a sense of atmospheric spice. Additionally, I almost overlooked the suspense, which is most definitely going to have you hanging off your rocker to await what will transpire. For example (here comes the spoiler alert!), when the balloon has drifted out of the atmosphere, Wren attempts to release the air from the ice-encrusted zeppelin. However, the hatchet has been frozen shut, and so Amelia must climb up the side of the aircraft since James is too busy losing oxygen. With that, she reaches the top but can’t get the hatch to budge even a wee bit so she jams one of her shoes into the wedge and passes out as the air slowly but surely withdraws. But things aren’t all secure quite yet cause now her unconscious body begins to slide down the surface… Long story shortened it’s effective.

The Aeronauts is a amusing mixed bag. Bizarrely enough, one can assume that this presumably would have worked a great deal further as a television special or miniseries then a full three-act structure. But a smidgen of decent elements like detached character synergy between the hero’s, spine-tingling suspense, and brilliant FX keep The Aeronauts afloat in the choppy water of meager flaws. RATING: 7/10

PASSENGERS WHO PUNCHED A TICKET

• Cnowak
• Adhdlifeforever
• Todd Russel
• Lordvocemofbeyond
• Simple Ula

Thank you for tuning in!

ANNOUNCEMENT

C’mon. I know you skimmed through the review. All jokes aside, a new project is coming to the website in an effort to branch out with other endeavors. Drumroll please… I’m in the ideas stage of a webcomic-esque project! Woo-hoo! The working title is “Salamander Snatcher”. The release date is undetermined at the time of this post’s release. It will be a slightly episodic series with various serials and ongoing plotlines, mostly involving character relations. The style will be blend of bizarro, sci-fi, zippy dialogue , king fu, intentionally tacky and obscure stories, the supernatural and much much more. Yeah, it will be quite strange. New episodes will be launched every other week. We will keep you updated on the progress in further reviews.

~originally posted by G.H. Nowak on January 28, 2020~