I saw this film in Cambridge on the night of its release. I'd seen various excellent reviews, marvelled at the online trailer and walked past many posters and a stall at the recent Duxford airshow: consequently my expectations were high.
It wasn't a bad film but it was no where near as good as the reviews imply. I'd hoped for a film about WW2 flying that had a minor love story component and regrettably encountered the reverse. I'm not adverse to love storys and emotional content (I enjoyed 'Titanic', 'Truly Madly Deeply' and 'Cyrano De Bergerac' amongst many others) but this seemed bolted on as a plot device.
The much vaunted flying sequences comprise a tiny fraction of the whole and are largely in the trailer. They are also not that impressive, much to my surprise. I had a real problem with the so called English airbase; surrounded by mountains and fir-trees. OK, so the crew had to film in Europe but they could have found somewhere a bit more realistic surely?! There's an implausibly lucky escape from a crashing Spitfire too: a bit of plot worthy of Neighbours not Tolstoy!
The real problem with 'Dark Blue World' is lack of emotional intensity. It tries hard to give an air of brooding menace and betrayal but achieves neither. I never felt engaged with the characters and was totally ambivalent when cast members were shot down.
This would have made a reasonable ITV drama production and that about sums up the production values and impact. A shame because I'd wished for more.
It wasn't a bad film but it was no where near as good as the reviews imply. I'd hoped for a film about WW2 flying that had a minor love story component and regrettably encountered the reverse. I'm not adverse to love storys and emotional content (I enjoyed 'Titanic', 'Truly Madly Deeply' and 'Cyrano De Bergerac' amongst many others) but this seemed bolted on as a plot device.
The much vaunted flying sequences comprise a tiny fraction of the whole and are largely in the trailer. They are also not that impressive, much to my surprise. I had a real problem with the so called English airbase; surrounded by mountains and fir-trees. OK, so the crew had to film in Europe but they could have found somewhere a bit more realistic surely?! There's an implausibly lucky escape from a crashing Spitfire too: a bit of plot worthy of Neighbours not Tolstoy!
The real problem with 'Dark Blue World' is lack of emotional intensity. It tries hard to give an air of brooding menace and betrayal but achieves neither. I never felt engaged with the characters and was totally ambivalent when cast members were shot down.
This would have made a reasonable ITV drama production and that about sums up the production values and impact. A shame because I'd wished for more.