Movie Review: Stealth

It's summer pop-corn, hot, buttery, greasy, slimy fingers summer pop-corn.

So what can be said about this movie? It has MANY shortcomings and they use every trick in the book to camouflage them but it fails. But it still is a fun movie. Not one I would watch over and over again. But I'll probably rent it once when it comes out on DVD.

SOME SPOILERS AHEAD, YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.

The story isn't complicated, really it isn't. Three top-gun pilots, in the near future, are picked to test-fly experimental fighter jets. Once the test runs are over, phase two begins, an AI (Artificial Intelligence) is installed into a newer cooler plane. As with any Frankenstein's monster, it goes ape-shit and wreaks bloody havoc on the village. But since it's a fighter jet, the village just got a whole lot bigger. And that's about it... oh yeah and they slipped in a love story of course.

But the thing is that despite all it's shortcomings, it's got some good enough sides to it to not deserve the GOOD,BAD and UGLY treatment. So here goes, mostly point by point.

SPECIAL EFFECTS: They are top notch. Period. The highlight for me was a transition between jets flying over the ocean's water and the water transitions into the rug on the aircraft-carrier. You don't realise the transition took place until you see a foot. Seamless and transparent. My big WOW! moment.

THE JETS: They are amazingly cool. But any serious geek will recognise the big rip-off from the Alpha fighters from the ROBOTECH series. The Tin-Man jet looks alien even. But I forgive these transgressions because the designers are always influenced by their own passions, the curse of the artist.

THE ROLES: In movies like this, the characters are BARELY developed so not much to say.

LT. BEN GANNON (Josh Lucas): He's the pretty flyboy who gets all the chicks except the one he loves because he's a big pussy. He's the leader of the band. The hero who will of course end up saving the day.

KARA WADE (Jessica Biel): She's the wing-woman, the love interest of Ben and the super-survivor. She's not vulnerable one second. She's tough as nails. But still ALL woman. Now to comment on how hot Jessica Biel would be redundant, because we all know it. But I will comment on something here. DAMN! She's strong. I don't know how badly she trained for this picture, but contrary to most female ass-kickers in movie and TV (i.e. Buffy) she's no waif. She's sporting some seriously strong arms and legs. And I love strong women, so that was the POW! of the movie. But she still can't act that well, in spite of getting hired to be the pretty sexy girl of the movie. Kara is obviously the balancing female essence, always bringing up the ethics of what they are doing. Also Kara doesn't talk tough, she is tough. In the last third of the movie you'll see that having an army of Korean soldiers sniping her doesn't faze her much. She's not the "save me" type, she goes Ripley on everyone.

Article Author: David Desjardins

Dave works in the IT industry despite his better judgment. He’s an artist at heart with a critical mind. He enjoys photography more than he could ever express. Dave feels a need to tweak his brain with copious amounts of taurine to stay sharp while absorbing all kinds of media on any medium. …

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