A very long movie with disappointingly shallow depth.

Rating: 3/10 (9 January 2005)

After seeing The Aviator, I disagree with the majority of people, who seem to adore the film. Its director, Martin Scorsese, is no doubt one of the greatest filmmakers of our time, but he has stumbled again with this film (following Gangs of New York).
The film's begins by showing one puzzling scene of Howard Hughes' as a child being bathed by his mother and then it jumps to a scene showing Hughes as a young man directing a movie, Hell's Angels. This 'jumping' from scene to scene with little or no explanation happens quite often in The Aviator and I think it may have been necessary to keep the running time below 10-hours. Aside from Leo and Cate Blanchet, many other characters in the movie are introduced with subtitles or never introduced to the audience at all. It seems Scorsese thought anyone besides Hughes and Hepburn are not worth the director's efforts. The movie SEEMS to contain many interesting subplots: Hughes' interest in Hollywood movie-making, relationships with Katherine Hepburn, Eva Gardner, etc., his quest to build the fastest planes, battling PAN AM and corrupted politicians, building a corporate empire (dream), and fighting the inner demons, which eventually destroy's his life. However, none of the plots are explained with any interest and the story skims only the plots' surface with no effort to grab the attention of the audience (at least not mine).
If an audience is not familiar with the life and times of Howard Hughes, Katherine Hepburn, Eva Gardner, and the evolution of commercial airlines in the U.S., then it is almost impossible to see any depth in this movie.
Sure, the set designs and acting of Leo and Blanchet are above-par in the film, but most others aspects of this film are in such a mess! It seems as if Martin Scorsese (and the writer) assumed every audience coming to theaters to watch The Aviator would already be fascinated by Howard Hughes' eccentric life. The story in the movie has no beginning or and no ending! It starts abruptly and ends abruptly.
Although the film spends nearly three hours concentrated solely on Howard Hughes' success and his inner demons of life, I walked out of the theater with a feeling that I've just watched an expensively designed movie with no real content. It really is a shame to spend that much money to make a movie that long only to miss the mark completely. Howard Hughes' life story must be very interesting to have drawn so much money and top talents, but then why is The Aviator so flat and boring? Well, it's simply a not well-made movie.
I miss the RAGING BULL, GOOD FELLAS, CASINO, CAPE FEAR... and I wish Mr. Scorsese would go back to making highly entertaining movies with DeNiro. THE AVIATOR (and GANGS OF NEW YORK) is a sub-par quality by the director's great standard.