Terror En El Aire

I do like Asian cinema, and when I was given the chance to sit down and watch "Zhong Guo Ji Zhang" (aka "The Captain"), of course I jumped at the chance. Now, I hadn't even heard about this 2019 movie from director Andrew Lau and writer Yonggan Yu prior to stumbling upon it by sheer luck.

And now having seen it, I must say that "The Captain" is definitely one of the better airplane disaster movies that I have seen. Why is that? Well, sure the whole thing about things going awry in midflight is nothing new, but this movie brought on a very personal feel to it as you get attached to the crew and passengers aboard the plane, and the storyline does a good part of making it feel like you are right there amidst the chaos aboard the plane.

The movie has good CGI effects, which really helped add to the overall enjoyment of the movie. And this movie definitely puts China on the movie map of airborne disaster movies.

"The Captain" also had a very good assembly of casted performers. I do enjoy watching unfamiliar faces on the screen, and "The Captain" was mostly all new faces for me. I must admit that people were definitely doing very good jobs with their given roles, and all seemed to be living into their characters quite well.

There is a good amount of thrills, suspense and action in a good combination to be had in this movie.

I was more than adequately entertained with this movie, and I can warmly recommend that you take the time to sit down and watch it, should you have the chance, and should you like airplane disaster movies.

My rating of "The Captain" is a seven star rating.

On a routine flight from the city of Chongqing to Lhasa carrying 119 passengers and 9 crew, the plane is flying above the Tibetan plateau, avoiding the edge of a heavy storm, when a crack appears right in front of the co-pilot. The cockpit window breaks completely, depressurizing the cockpit, pulling the co-pilot halfway out, while the captain, played in the movie by Hanyu Zhang, tries to keep him at least half in the plane with his right hand, while trying to control the plane with his left. The entire cabin depressurizes and the plane falls out of communication with flight control. The oxygen masks drop from the bulkhead, the passengers start screaming and demand to see the captain, while the six flight attendants and erstwhile relaxing second officer trying to calm them. With no communications, plane out of control, and a major storm raging, will any of them get to the ground alive?

Andy Lau's movie recreation of real-life events is very well made, filled with startling and terrifying details. Like other movies showing people being heroic -- particularly 2016's SULLY -- it tells the events on board the plane in a plain, unadorned, "just the facts, ma'am" manner that makes the eventual impact even greater in the long run.

Lau's foreshadowing of events is a bit heavy-handed --the attendants practice their "We are trained in emergency procedure" speech and one complains that she never gets to use it; and I thought the rejoicing at the end went on a bit too long, but that last is a matter of taste. It's a well made and exciting film and what more can anyone ask?

When I am writing this review it only has 6.2 star rating.

I think this movie atleast deserve a 7 star rating out of 10.

Pros : A good watch .

Cons :

High expectation but disappointed. Why didn't they follow the emergency landing protocol and evacuate passengers from all emergency exits? I know because the director wants to show how happy everyone is. Who cares about evacuation anyway.

Balanced movie between action ,adventure and emotions. Kudos. Actimg of stars, cinamatograpphy VFX, STORY LINE ETC ARE MARVELLOUS. CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL FILM MAKING UNIT, PRODUCER, DIRECTOR OF THE MOVIE.