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Flyboys EssayWorld War I is long overdue for a proper stumble across modern movie screens, but Flyboys isnt it. Director Tony Bills film captures all the clichs of every warfare movie ever made and rolls them into an experience punctuated by inconsistent performances and even more inconsistent storytelling. Snoopys battles with the blood-red Baron felt more authentic than this.The problems start with James Franco, who plays lead flyboy in the story of American airman flying for the French during World War I. Its based on a true story, which has diverseness of become the de facto excuse for making bad movies. Hey dont blame us Thats the way it is. Right. Im not buying it. Franco plays a Texan with a southern accent that drifts in and out as if propelled by the wind. Sometimes hes a flying cowpoke, sometimes hes James Franco. Mostly, hes just bad at doing whatsoeverthing other than looking James doyen good.Francos squadron of biplane flying companions makes a motley crew of di ssimilar comrades. Theres the black guy who cant get a break in the U.S., the religious guy, the guy whos afraid to fight, the funny guy who cant shoot straight, and the clannish rich kid. Theyre bossed around by an oh-so-dark and dashing squadron commander and default French guy Jean Reno. whatever happened to Gerard Depardieu?Flyboys exists in a lazy, laid back version of The Great War that simply could not buzz off existed. The pilots lounge around in picturesque France, taking their time to learn to fly and shoot spot somewhere over that stand of trees somewhere a war happens. Sometimes they go out and sometimes they die, but our heroes always come back home to a nice cozy, safe bed. The reality of the starting time terrible world war never really touches the characters in this film and because of that we never get any tangible sense of what exactly it is that theyre fighting for.Lets face it though, if youre anything like me youre here for the dogfights. Prop plane dogfigh ting hasnt been do right since The Rocketeer and even there that wasnt exactly the point. Biplanes may not move quickly, but the way they escape pilots hanging out there in the promiscuous air presents a unique opportunity to commove audiences with a more up close and personal sort of flying.Flyboys planes look pretty, their CGI frames glistening in the sunshine as they dip, dive, and burn through the sky, but that thrill of being shot at in an open cockpit is nowhere to be found. Theres rarely any sense of speed as they move, and the pilots all react as if theyre being filmed in front of a bluescreen, which of course they are. Theres a lot of talk most how excited these daring dos are to be up in the air, but very small-minded while theyre up there to actually indicate it.Bill uses a lot of really great, shrewdly looking wide shots, but he never lingers on each shot long enough to give us a real grasp of how it might feel to be in one. Worse, soulfulness made the bizarre decision to tag all the planes machinegun fire with thick tidy sum trails. If Id never seen a bullet fired in a movie before it might seem cool, but since I have and thus know they dont leave a contrail like a missile, its distracting. Bullets dont spew smoke as they fly towards their targets. Choosing a special effect so outside reality in a film planted so firmly in reality is bizarre.The movie never captures the thrill of dogfighting, so far the planes do look sharp on screen and for aviation buffs seeing those old prop engines up there might be enough. For the rest of us, seeing Flyboys means fighting through a plodding, repetitious musical score and a lot of bad acting to get to an unsatisfying ending. Based on a true story or not, this is one adventure that might have been better left on the runway.