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"The naval air force. The near future. To combat the mounting threat of terrorism, a new program has been created. Armed with the most advanced and experimental technology, its purpose is to destroy the enemy wherever they operate in the world. Over 400 pilots applied for the program. 3 were chosen." - So say the opening credits. Stealth is a science fiction aerial combat movie. A plane with advanced AI is being tested in real-life situations. The three other human pilots in the program have trouble accepting and coping with the situation. They feel things may go wrong... things go wrong.
Let's be honest here. You have to have a reason to pick up a movie like this. Either you're looking for a simple action movie or you've seen Top Gun and you want more. For me it was the latter. Turns out aerial combat movies are a rare species. The main reason, I suppose, is that's because they are difficult to make. You need to get permission to use fighter planes. You need people to pilot those planes (and it's not like you can hire a crop-dusting farmer to do that job) and you need to film all that from good angles. I should imagine it's one of those things that's way harder to do than it looks.
On the other hand, though, we're dealing with science fiction and planes which don't exist. That makes it a challenge. It's not complicated to make. You just use CGI. You have no other choice. However, CGI usually looks exactly like what it is - fake. That's why it's a challenge. You need to make fake things look real. It may be such a small thing, after all, movies aren't about how great the special effects are, not for us MoFo's anyway. They are about the story, the acting and so on. Still, if the most important thing in this movie (the planes) looked fake the movie would already be in the "crappy" category. Fortunately, it is not. I have to admit, as a MoFo I usually don't allow myself to marvel at special effects. This movie is an exception, though. It's a 2005 movie and yet the planes look and move very realistically. In fact, the action scenes are so good that you don't pay attention to the fakeness. That is, in my view, a significant achievement and I can't help but appreciate it. This is one of those movies in which CGI is being used in moderation to the overall advantage of the movie rather than just for the "wow" effect of the masses. Serious points for that, right there.
Anyway, I usually address the acting in movies. Not much to say here, really. It's decent on the overall, not great, not bad, some of the actors you've seen before (even though you will struggle to remember where) and some of them you've seen for the first time and hope to never see again. Let's move on.
So here comes the important bit - the story. You've got three experimental planes piloted by humans and one experimental plane piloted by an advanced artificial intelligence. Think for a second. Yes, the story is exactly what you think it is. All is well until a lighting strikes the AI plane and it goes haywire. It then decides to disobey orders and destroy everything and everyone it thinks is evil no matter what the cost while playing rock music. It becomes a danger and must be killed off by the humans. However, it turns out that the lighting strike made the AI experience feelings. It's now more than just artificial. One of the humans decides to give it a second shot and blah blah blah... Like I Robot much? Yeah, well you're gonna enjoy this flick as well. The point is, it's nothing special at all. It's been done and it's probably going to be done many, many times again.
So what do we have so far? Good CGI, "neutral" acting, and an overused story. From what you've read so far in this review, it's not looking good for Stealth. You're probably ready to give it a "thumbs down". Bear with me for a second, though. It's actually quite a good movie. Why? Well, like I said, it's rare. There's not much to mention in that genre. The only really good movie in the genre I can name is Top Gun, and therefore that's the only thing I can compare it to. Top Gun is a classic. It screams: "80s!", it was an ambitious project done well, it's a standard to look up to in the genre. So how does Stealth hold up next to such a great movie? Pretty well, surprisingly. It's not original, it's not fancy, it's based on an over-used theme. Still, the fact that someone decided to make it in the first place gives it a lot of points right off the bat. You can see that the people who made this movie really wanted to make something decent and they did. Not great but... decent.
All in all, if you want aerial combat movies, you cannot skip this one and if you're looking for a decent action movie, this will also do the job as there are a lot of cool action scenes with explosions. Perhaps one day, like 50 years from now, a lot of movies like this will have been made and Stealth will go down in history as the cliche, not really special one. For now, though, you really don't have that much of a choice and you should be thankful that this is the choice you have.
Stealth (2005)
"The naval air force. The near future. To combat the mounting threat of terrorism, a new program has been created. Armed with the most advanced and experimental technology, its purpose is to destroy the enemy wherever they operate in the world. Over 400 pilots applied for the program. 3 were chosen." - So say the opening credits. Stealth is a science fiction aerial combat movie. A plane with advanced AI is being tested in real-life situations. The three other human pilots in the program have trouble accepting and coping with the situation. They feel things may go wrong... things go wrong.
Let's be honest here. You have to have a reason to pick up a movie like this. Either you're looking for a simple action movie or you've seen Top Gun and you want more. For me it was the latter. Turns out aerial combat movies are a rare species. The main reason, I suppose, is that's because they are difficult to make. You need to get permission to use fighter planes. You need people to pilot those planes (and it's not like you can hire a crop-dusting farmer to do that job) and you need to film all that from good angles. I should imagine it's one of those things that's way harder to do than it looks.
On the other hand, though, we're dealing with science fiction and planes which don't exist. That makes it a challenge. It's not complicated to make. You just use CGI. You have no other choice. However, CGI usually looks exactly like what it is - fake. That's why it's a challenge. You need to make fake things look real. It may be such a small thing, after all, movies aren't about how great the special effects are, not for us MoFo's anyway. They are about the story, the acting and so on. Still, if the most important thing in this movie (the planes) looked fake the movie would already be in the "crappy" category. Fortunately, it is not. I have to admit, as a MoFo I usually don't allow myself to marvel at special effects. This movie is an exception, though. It's a 2005 movie and yet the planes look and move very realistically. In fact, the action scenes are so good that you don't pay attention to the fakeness. That is, in my view, a significant achievement and I can't help but appreciate it. This is one of those movies in which CGI is being used in moderation to the overall advantage of the movie rather than just for the "wow" effect of the masses. Serious points for that, right there.
Anyway, I usually address the acting in movies. Not much to say here, really. It's decent on the overall, not great, not bad, some of the actors you've seen before (even though you will struggle to remember where) and some of them you've seen for the first time and hope to never see again. Let's move on.
So here comes the important bit - the story. You've got three experimental planes piloted by humans and one experimental plane piloted by an advanced artificial intelligence. Think for a second. Yes, the story is exactly what you think it is. All is well until a lighting strikes the AI plane and it goes haywire. It then decides to disobey orders and destroy everything and everyone it thinks is evil no matter what the cost while playing rock music. It becomes a danger and must be killed off by the humans. However, it turns out that the lighting strike made the AI experience feelings. It's now more than just artificial. One of the humans decides to give it a second shot and blah blah blah... Like I Robot much? Yeah, well you're gonna enjoy this flick as well. The point is, it's nothing special at all. It's been done and it's probably going to be done many, many times again.
So what do we have so far? Good CGI, "neutral" acting, and an overused story. From what you've read so far in this review, it's not looking good for Stealth. You're probably ready to give it a "thumbs down". Bear with me for a second, though. It's actually quite a good movie. Why? Well, like I said, it's rare. There's not much to mention in that genre. The only really good movie in the genre I can name is Top Gun, and therefore that's the only thing I can compare it to. Top Gun is a classic. It screams: "80s!", it was an ambitious project done well, it's a standard to look up to in the genre. So how does Stealth hold up next to such a great movie? Pretty well, surprisingly. It's not original, it's not fancy, it's based on an over-used theme. Still, the fact that someone decided to make it in the first place gives it a lot of points right off the bat. You can see that the people who made this movie really wanted to make something decent and they did. Not great but... decent.
All in all, if you want aerial combat movies, you cannot skip this one and if you're looking for a decent action movie, this will also do the job as there are a lot of cool action scenes with explosions. Perhaps one day, like 50 years from now, a lot of movies like this will have been made and Stealth will go down in history as the cliche, not really special one. For now, though, you really don't have that much of a choice and you should be thankful that this is the choice you have.