Mirror Wars: Reflection One

this movie isn't my cup of tea.i couldn't watch it all,since i lost interest,but form what i saw,it just wasn't good.i just found it boring,with pretty bad acting,and a plot that is all over the place.it's a Russian made movie,the second i have seen now.the first one being Nightwatch.i didn't like that movie either.it also has a plot that doesn't make a lot of sense,at least in my opinion.anyway,Mirror Wars starts off promising enough,with some scenes of jet fighters doing maneuvers,which look pretty impressive.after that though,it's not so good.i wouldn't recommend it myself,but if you liked Nghtwatch,you might like this movie.for me,Mirror Wars is a 3/10

One of the most boring movies I've ever seen. Simply a low-budget movie with too much talking and less action. Most actors act poor, not convincing and with fake emotions. The movie is all about a 'high-tech stealth fighter' so I expected to see one. But no, they simply used a conventional Russian plane and didn't make a single change for the movie. In the movie itself they justify it by saying something like 'it's not the shape what matters, but the materials it's made off'. I'm sure they have a good reason to use as much as Russian actors cos after all, the story takes place in Russia. But I'm sorry to say, they're acting is bad, fake and not convincing.

i watched this because i wanted to see the SU-30.Its a very rare opportunity to see any real Russian fighter because in most well known aviator movies of the 80's like Top Gun and Iron Eagle,American producers couldn't get their hands on Russian aircraft using ridiculous substitutes ,usually as MIGS,planes like F-5's and even Phantoms. So if you want to see a real Russian plane its in this movie. The gimmick about it being a super special plane was not needed at all,they could have had the same story with terrorists wanting to hijack the real plane without having to make up a story about an imaginary plane. However i think the aerial scenes leave a lot to be desired.If only these Russian guys who made this movie could at least get that right. The rest of the movie suffers from the obvious fact the producers wanted to sell it to the American market.I mean if there is something more ridiculous than Russian pilots and generals speaking badly dubbed English,and American English at that,i don't know what that is.That was the most annoying thing for me.Actually some of the Russian actors didn't do a bad job but the dubbing made their performance sound like some guy reading a newspaper in his toilet. Also i didn't see the point of not hiring a couple of cheap European and American actors to play the respective parts.I mean,the lead female is obviously a Russian actress playing an American.I'm sure they could have hired a non-name American actress who would do a more believable job. All these things i think could have been avoided and with the same budget. Out of the 3 names Assante does an OK job,McDowell is good as the villain,Hauer appears very briefly.

I was waiting for this movie for a long time. After all, it's the first Russian movie with Rutger Hauer, my favourite actor. According the first news about "Mirror Wars: Reflection One" - it will be screen version of "Labyrinth of Reflections" - the novel by Sergey Lukyanenko, the author of the "NightWatch" trilogy. However, fortunately, those rumors was fake ("Labyrinth of Reflections" or "Glubina" will be filming in the next year, double fortunately, without Rutger) - "Mirror Wars: Reflection One" - spy action movie about Russian air forces and new interceptor "Sabretooth". Some terrorist organization which wants to get hold it, so Mysterious Man (Hauer) gave order to Dick Murdock (McDowell) - ex-CIA agent, who became a first class terrorist after being captured in China - to provoke conflict between USA and Russia with "Sabretooth". However, Alexei Kedrov (Efimov) - the brave pilot of "Sabretooth" don't want to give the interceptor to the bad guys.

The whole film isn't bad (there is some good action scenes on the earth and in the air), but sometime it's a slightly inconsistently and boring. Seems, all movie budget was spent for action scenes, plane crashings (very effective - without CG!) and three foreign actors. As about Russian actors - for many of them "Mirror Wars: Reflection One" was their first movie. Their performance is rather boring and unnatural - in contrast to their foreign colleagues. McDowell is great villain, Assante - in good traditions of his old movies, Hauer - mysterious charismatic old man. So... 5 out of 10, I think.

OK, this isn't the best movie I've ever seen regarding military aviation but it is worth watching once. There are some nice flying sections and a battle that is reasonable to watch. There is a plot and some sub plots going on which are somewhat entertaining.

If you sat through Fire Birds, just shut off the same part of your brain and you'll enjoy this, at least you don't have to deal with the Jones/Cage macho personality battle.

To me, the Sukhoi flying footage alone is worth watching a few times. Given the price you can get the DVD for, it is worth adding to a collection of military aircraft films. How much you like it will depend on what you are looking for in a film.