Unfortunately a bore....

Rating: 5/10 (8 March 2009)

The Aviator is a boring movie if only because Leonardo Dicaprio stole the show. Instead of Leo portraying a character in a story, he thrust his persona onto the screen and essentially killing the character in it. You are thus not watching Howard Hughes' life and drama but Leo's own rendering of it. I'll admit that he is fun to watch, but after seeing him do the same act in Titanic, catch me if you can, Departed, and another recent movie I can't remember the name, he becomes lame and uninteresting as every repetitive one-man-stand tends to be no manner how funny or charming. I was constantly searching throughout the movie to see one unusual gesture of character that is not of the Dicaprio routine. But unfortunately Leo's character was constantly there at every move and gesture, and every facial expression he made was invariably another one of those already-familiar highly-overplayed Leonardo-Dicaprio displays. Perhaps Leo should begin putting his talent into sequels and series where he will be more interesting as Leo-being-himself-all-the-time rather than Leo-trying-to-portray-another-character.