Born to Fly

An amazing watch full of emotions and pride it's a story about test pilots and there efforts for there motherland the presentation of the movie is excellent the CGI on point all the shots are great to watch The story is about the main character Lei Yu his growth how passion and endless effort to make the best stealth fighter WangYibo is natural and effortless as Lei Yu bringing this character to.life making him all passionate and believable Hu Jun Zhang ting is very good very authoritative very brave Zhou dong yu has a short but good supportive role giving Lei Yu some good emotions all other characters played there part well The narrative is simple and straightforward with enough fun emotions and some heartbreaking scenes all natural and relatable Recommended to all 👍👍

Big budgeted film with the help of Chinese military. There are shots of test pilot cemetery and big field of solar panels that I don't think it has been revealed to outside world before. Most of the content is based on true stories. The movie contains a lot of interesting and technical stuff about a little known career - test pilots. Surprisingly, I enjoy learning all those technical terms. The test flight scenes are super intense thanks to the very well done CGI. The romance line is almost non-existent and actually I think, unnecessary. There are also some humors here and there. Expect some degree of patriotism propaganda though.

....but this is a great action movie! It's entertaining, and shows a lot of heart.

The flying sequences are superbly exciting, and the army discipline is enviable.

The camera work and acting are very good.

By American standards, it's a bit too starchy and dignified: there needs to be more in the way of bloody violence and romance to satisfy our palate. (On the other hand, it does show grown men cry, a no-no in American films.)

I hope the Republicans can get our military back in shape; or else, as intimated by this well-made, entertaining film, as it currently stands, if push came to shove, the communist Chinese military would eat our lunch.

"Lei Yu" (the competent Yibo Wang) is an aspiring test pilot who is selected to take part in a prestigious programme to improve the efficiency of the Chinese Air Force's jet fighters. A bit of rivalry with "Deng Fang" (Yosh Yu) and inspiration from their commander "Zhang" (Jun Hu) makes sure the young man and his equipment are tested to the extreme - but can he rise to the challenge? It certainly has a bit of the look of "Maverick" (2022) to it, with some impressive aerial photography and dog-fighting and it also tries to imbue something of the engineering and science to the plot - crediting the young airmen with skills well beyond just being able to fly a plane. Sadly, though, the producers just couldn't (or wouldn't) steer clear of the political jingoism that rather nauseatingly lauds the virtues of their Air Force against an unknown (English-speaking) foe that is constantly harassing and threatening them. By mid-way through I felt rather sorry for "Lei Yu" - to say he seemed a bit accident-prone would be like saying Jonah liked whales - so the fact that he survives at all is quite a remarkable feat! There's the merest hint of a romance with his doctor "Shen Tianran" (Dongyu Zhou) but for the most part this is all about a young man's determination to succeed. It's perfectly watchable with some decent production standards and had it kept off the flag-waving grass, it could have made for another example of well-enough made high-octane cinema. At times it just smacks too much of a party rallying cry though, and that lets it down.

This was an obvious attempt at replicating Top Gun, but without the chops. I dropped off three times, but finally made it through on the fourth attempt. I rented it for $2.99, that was a mistake.

The storyline is OK, at least now I know there are test pilots out there. Acting was also OK; not great, not horrible.

The part that was hard frustrating was the obvious Chinese propaganda and "us vs the world" antics. I watch movies to entertain myself, not to be brainwashed. It was rated 9.9 on Viki, the highest score I've ever seen on the app thus far. I am guessing the hero / martyr propaganda resonated with the Chinese audience.