Sky
Fighters (the original French title literally translates to "The
Knights of the Sky") is a French release emulating the look, sound, and
overall vibe of the quintessential fighter pilot film,
Top Gun. It's not a remake per se,
although there's no attempt to cover up the fact that it liberally plays
in the sandbox built by the Tony Scott/Jerry Bruckheimer populist
classic, except with less of the gay subtext that the film has
unintentionally become notorious for. Although the source material
on which his film claims to be based, the Charlier/Uderzo comic series,
predates Top Gun by over 20 years, this film still has the Tom Cruise
film's trite drama, buddy movie underpinnings, rock video atmosphere,
and stylized quick-cut action.
The story
starts with the disappearance of a French-built fighter jet, the Mirage
2000, from a British air show. Two French fighter pilots in the
area, Captain Antoine "Walk'n" Machelli (Magimel,
The Piano Teacher) and Captain
Sebastien "Fahrenheit" Vallois (Cormillac,
Brice de Nice), are sent in to try to retrieve it, if possible.
They find the rogue jet, but when the pilot of the plane gets aggressive
and is about to fire, Machelli blows it out of the sky, contradicting a
direct order to abort the mission. In the public eye, the event is
spun as an act of heroism, but behind the scenes, the French government
is furious at the incident, booting them from the Navy. However,
great pilots are hard to come by, so Machelli and Vallois are soon
recruited into the Special Missions unit to run a "Cannonball", a race
through mostly foreign and hostile territory to see if the French will
sell Mirages to a large arms dealer vs. the competing American F-16's.
Just as had
been the case with Top Gun, the main asset of Sky FIghters
primarily lies with the stellar aerial cinematography, allowing for an
up close and personal view of some slick fighter jets performing complex
maneuvers at high speeds and dangerously low altitudes. Perhaps most impressive is that most
of the best footage comes from the air, utilizing new technology and
complicated mountings to capture some stunning footage rarely seen in a
commercial release. As was the case with Top Gun in the
United States, the film was produced with the blessing and cooperation
of the French Air Force, allowing the filmmakers unprecedented access to
expensive military jet aircraft, as well as lending them the best pilots
to fly the planes for the aerial scenes. Amazingly, none of the
fantastic in-air footage is enhanced by CGI, making the technical
accomplishments of the filming crew infinitely more impressive,
Unfortunately,
by capturing the essence of Top Gun in every major way, the
filmmakers behind Sky Fighters also incorporated some of the same
weaknesses. Military life is overly glamorized, the romantic
interests are highly superficial, and many of the main conflicts between
the men and authority reside on a purely cartoonish level. While
the action is terrific, the drama in between the action is cheesy and
unconvincing, but no different than most films that go for the glossy,
not-too-serious vibe that is part and parcel of summer popcorn movie
fare.
If you're a fan
of Top Gun for any reason other than Tom Cruise's involvement,
you'll probably enjoy Sky Fighters. It's an inherently
silly, yet still enjoyable action flick that is mindless almost to a
fault, but goes down easy for those times when you want an action film
without anything too heavy in delivery to bog it down. Credit the
slick direction by Gerard Pires (Riders,
Taxi) for a faithful recreation without being a complete rip-off,
so that, once again, young men can fantasize about how cool it must be
to be a military fighter pilot, especially since the military and
government agencies have no shortage of hot babes in high heels around.
It's all a big crock, but knowingly so, and like Top Gun had been
back in 1986, it's one of the more enjoyable all-flash-no-substance
movie releases of the year.
-- "The
"Les Chevaliers du Ciel" comics have
been previously adapted twice as TV series' in France in 1967 and 1988.
