A Solid (Central) Character Piece

Rating: 7/10 (5 January 2017)

Martin Scorsese's films all have a distinctive style and tone to them so it's always been nice to see him change things up a bit and while this most certainly has hints of his style The Aviator was a nice departure from his usually films and I can honestly say that I enjoyed this film though it's not without its flaws. Easily the best thing about this film is the central performance of Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes, DiCaprio just brings a presence to Hughes making him very charismatic yet charming, his character is never dull to watch and it's always interesting to watch. Mainly because his breakdown into near insanity is so well done, its built up slowly across the films run-time so that when that pivotal moment where he loses his mind it feels merited. If I'm honest I've never been the biggest fan of Cate Blanchett but I can honestly say that I thought she was excellent in this movie, not only was her character just extremely entertaining she had such good chemistry with DiCaprio and her romance with him joint with their gradual parting is done perfectly. The Aviator it set from the mid 30s to the late 40s and the production design joint along with the Costume Design are immaculate, it sucks you right into this period. The actual aviation scenes themselves sequences themselves are very well done, the green screen is completely convincing and they're built up just right so that we understand just how much they mean to Hughes. However if I'm honest while this film is far to well acted and executed to be bad I do think this film is a little overrated. For one while the central character is developed perfectly and given good and clear motivations for his actions the other characters in this film have very little reasoning behind their actions so when they start their attacks against Hughes they don't feel earned and this makes this entire arc fall a bit flat. Another thing this film doesn't do very well is make you feel much sympathy for Hughes, because he's such an unlikable character it doesn't really make you care that much that he has so much at stake. However after this arc finishes I enjoyed the final act and DiCaprios haunting last "The Way of The Future" monologue was extremely haunting that did make me feel sympathy for him unlike the previous act of the film.
I do like The Aviator, both DiCaprio and Blanchett are both amazing in this film, it's a fantastic period piece but ultimately where it succeeds with its central character it ultimately fails with the Supporting making for a lot of this film coming of as unsatisfactory. But it's definitely a good film and would recommend it to any fan of Scorsese's work.
72%/B