La Guerre des As

The First World War was the first war to feature air "aces": pilots who gained fame and glory through shooting down a large number of enemy planes. This documentary series examines the air war during WW1 and in particular the main aces from the German, French and British air forces. Included are such famous names as Manfred Von Richthofen, Georges Guynemer, Rene Fonck, Ernst Udet and Edward Mannock.

Reasonably interesting documentary, covering the lives of a few air aces of WW1. Some facts that I didn't know plus okayish CGI-based reenactments of air battles.

Only passable as far as a history lesson goes, nothing more. Many great aces are not mentioned, including Eddie Rickenbacker, top US ace. Von Richthofen's death should have been covered in some detail too, but all we have is a mention of it.

Even worse than the gap-filled history is the dramatization. It is terrible. Highly cringeworthy dialogue and sub-plots. The producers should have just shot this as a cold documentary rather than a half-hearted attempt as a docu-drama.

Very immersive stories about the greatest aces from all involved sides of the WW-I with their best achievements, anecdotes and tragedies. If you like aviation you'll love this series.

Also, the visuals are amazing. You're watching those episodes and you're not sure if the entire footage is computer animation, or if there are real people and environments in it, but with special effects applied to them.

The airplanes look realistic, but a bit too perfect. Humans look realistic, but somehow surreal. They fit in perfectly with each other, leaving you guessing whether everything is real, or maybe everything is computer graphics.

The truth is, they used real actors, while the environment and airplanes are computer graphics, but melded in such a way that you can't say which one is which.

I'd expect this kind of dedication when making a 100 million dollar feature movie, but here each episode is made with absolute precision, paying attention to story, details and visual style. Congrats to the production team, actors and animators. I want them to do more series like this one.

P.S. Sorry if my review sounds like a commercial, but I really didn't expect much from a series about pilot aces aired on Viasat History. And then I was positively surprised.