Stealth

Went to watch Stealth yesterday night. Basically the story is about this group of 3 elite pilots in the Talon programme, flying super-cool state of the art stealth jets capable of achieving Mach4 speeds, have satellite uplinks to the control rooms, super computers to calculate all sorts of cool stuff, and...get this...foldable wings!!! Wow, if I have anything to say about this movie, it definitely has super-cool planes!

Anyway, the story goes that the 3 pilots are joined by a 4th wingman, a super AI-controlled jet called the UCAV-EDI (Eddie), Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle Extreme Deep Invader (yeah I know it sounds like crap). Basically it's more powerful, more intelligent, and more capable than its human-infested relatives. EDI's job is to learn all the tricks in the books of the 3 pilots, in the hopes that one day it will replace the need to send human pilots to do the dirty work.

Of course, from the trailers we already know that EDI will get struck by lightning and somehow screws up its internal computers, thus turning to "evil" and threatens to destroy the world.

If you think you've got the story all figured out, somehow it got even more convoluted! The captain in charge of the whole EDI project has aspirations to join the higher echelons of the political beauracracy. Planes crash, pilots get stranded in North Korea, orders made to kill pilots in the name of protecting his own ass. There's more. A hot pursuit from a North Korean sniper on the lady pilot, military mutiny charges, sneaky politicians...

But wait... don't let all that spoil the fun! Did I mention that this movie is super cool? The CGI looks damn cool. The planes are all so cool, flying at super speeds (check out the opening sequence!), shooting missiles out of rotating banks, EDI executing a super maneuver concerning a refueling balloon, and an interesting flight path 15ft above ground level (below the radar floor). Of course, most of the physics are defied in this movie, but.. hey it's super cool!

Ultimately, I wished that this movie would stick to the good old genre of humans vs machines. That would have made for a very interesting summer flick indeed! Imagine, EDI the unstoppable AI menace and the only way to stop it is to destroy it...but on board is a nuclear warhead HOT and ARMED, or some biological or chemical weapon! And EDI is threatening the human race, planting attacks on major cities and towns. WOW, that would be a superb movie!

Otherwise, Stealth is just okay, with super cool planes!

Did I mention how super cool the planes are? Mach1... Mach2... Mach3... Mach4 woooooooooshhhhhhh :P