too much ATC chatter

Rating: 3/10 (3 December 2006)

About two thirds of the film is unexciting chatter from air traffic control staff trying to find out what's happening, followed by a short free for all on the plane. OK, that's because all that chatter was recorded, and no-one really knows the detail of what happened on united 93, but it doesn't make for riveting cinema. In reality it was a tragic episode, and it should have been left that way. I mean it should have been left as a real event, a news item at the time. The film is not a significant work of art, as for example Picasso's Guernica was.
We could have done with more background about the lives of the passengers and aircrew in the weeks before the flight took off. As it is, they are rather two dimensional characters. Ironically, it is easier to understand the context in which the hijackers are operating, because of all that has been written about them (and people like them) since.