Film Review - Flight (2013)

Flight is the first live action film directed by Robert Zemeckis since 2000's Cast Away and stars Denzel Washington as Captain Whip Whittaker, a flight captain who performs a miraculous act of heroism by saving 96 out of 102 souls onboard a flight that crashes, but his bravery may have been under the influence.

I went into Flight with very mixed expectations, the main reason I wanted to see the film was due to Washington's involvement with the film, does his involvement make it interesting or only serve to be one of the rare occasions where he fails to save the film he's in?

Well, actually it's a case of the middle of the road, Washington is indeed great in the film, bringing a lot of dimension and character to his role and lifting the general tone of the film to one where you rarely stop paying attention to him, John Goodman, Bruce Greenwood and Don Cheadle also pitch in good performances in their roles and the opening scenes with Whip at the helm of the crashing plane are spectacular though part of me couldn't help but think of the opening of the Dark Knight Rises and the background music that plays after Bane says "Crashing this Plane, with no survivors."

But the film also has a pretty big flaw to it and that is the overall storyline of the film feels pretty routine, delving into the age old tale of alcoholism and drug addiction that so many movies have tackled with before and no doubt will do after this movie has come and gone, Washington performs at his best in those scenes and it lifts the feeling of routineness in that part of the film but that feeling is still there but is better handled than it has been in the past on some occasions.

So overall Flight is pretty good with a great lead performance and some good plane scenes and supporting performances even if the film as a whole doesn't quite stick the landing though, that said the next time you get on a plane after seeing this movie say to yourself "calm down, now is not the time for fear, that comes later", 2 and a half out of 5.