Flak36

I see some people recommending to watch it on the largest screen possible. I agree with them and that's why I decided to go to the Leonberg IMAX cinema in Germany. The largest IMAX screen worldwide. On top of that, one of the VFX supervisors, Gerd Nefzer was there as a special guest. It was an experience I will never forget. The whole theater was shaking during action scenes with intense sound. And of course the movie itself is a masterpiece. It's also significantly better than the first movie. Dune Part 2 is solid proof that good cinema exists and can continue to exist, if the studio executives can give artists a break and allow the creative freedom necessary for such a result.

The US Army Airforces suffered over eighty-eight thousand casualties during World War 2. That's 12% of the US Army's total battle casualties. Twenty-two thousand of those airmen were tail gunners. Their campaign secured the skies over Europe, making the Normandy Landings possible. This miniseries about their story.

I still don't know why took so many years for Hanks and Spielberg to make this, but I'm glad that it's finally here and that it's as good as I hoped. One of the positive aspects of it being delayed for so many years is that it allowed the technology, that is necessary for such project, to be developed.

The first episode alone shows more than one battle and the entire show had a budget of $250 million. Compare that with Midway (2019),another recent World War 2 movie that includes aerial combat, which was on a budget of $100 million.

And yes, the VFX for this show are fantastic. We're only two episodes into the series and I already see people complaining about "CGI battles". I guess Hanks and Spielberg had to produce real B17s and Bf109s and then shoot practical dogfights with real casualties to make you happy. Such reviews and comments hurt the industry and the overworked and underpaid artists trying to make a living in VFX.

I'll start by saying that I went to see it knowing nothing about the plot, so I didn't have any expectations at all. I enjoyed it despite its flaws that have been pointed out by so many already.

Everyone notices similarities with Terminator, Blade Runner, Avatar, and the visual effects and production design smell "Rogue One". This can be either good or bad depending on your point of view.

Unfortunately the plot has too many unanswered questions which made me scratch my head. I just couldn't accept some of the plot points in the story. Maybe I need to watch the movie a second time to understand it better.

I noticed at least a couple of moments where the editing is objectively bad and gave the impression that there wasn't enough footage to work with. I was also surprised to see Hans Zimmer's name in the end credits as the music didn't stand out in this movie.

Long story short, I appreciate what Gareth Edwards and everyone else involved achieved in this movie. Gareth Edwards wrote a good story but the actual screenplay needed a bit more work.

It's also insane that this was made with such a low budget and as a VFX artist myself I enjoyed the visuals more than anything else.