The Rocketeer is
a nice film and doesn’t try to do more than that. You sit and enjoy the ride
as, once again, we see how the Nazis and their numerous plans for world
domination are stopped. The movie has some nice visual effects, which, I must
recognize, were amazing for a film made in 1991. Some movies made now don’t
even measure up.
The movie isn’t
perfect and may not have the same power as the MCU, but Disney did a good job
with this adaptation. For me, it’s a very straightforward flick about an
ordinary good guy who’s lucky enough to discover a magnificent rocket pack that
he can strap on and fly with. He has a girl he loves, and the bad guys want the
rocket pack and take his girl. The movie doesn’t entertain any complexity—just
straight-to-the-point superhero stuff.
The movie is
based on the character of the same name created by comic book artist and writer
Dave Stevens in the 80s.
Boasting fine
acting from the entire cast, I can’t see anyone sitting through this movie,
viewing it with the eyes of the 90s, and hating it much. However, with the
likes of the MCU and DCEU nowadays, this movie doesn’t compare to them, and
children may prefer the all-around action of Marvel and DC to this fine movie.
The movie and
the comic are set in the late 1930s during World War II, and I like the movie’s
set design, the costumes, and everything else that has a warm feel of what I
imagine the 1930s to be. It introduces us to Cliff (Billy Campbell), a stunt
pilot whose plane is destroyed when a gangster tries to escape from the Feds.
The getaway leads to gunfights that damage Cliff’s plane, causing it to crash.
Cliff is lucky to survive the crash.
While cleaning
up the wreckage, Cliff discovers that the man fleeing from the Feds hid
something in his plane. He opens it up and finds a rocket pack.
Cliff and his
friend Peabody (Alan Arkin) test it out, and Cliff is eager to try it on. We
soon learn that a man who seems to be working undercover for the bad guys had
paid men to steal the rocket pack. These are the same men who were chased by
the Feds in the beginning and caused Cliff’s crash. The man is working
undercover as an actor, and, as luck would have it, one of his co-stars is
Cliff’s girl, Jenny (Jennifer Connelly).
This actor wants
the rocket pack, the Feds also want it, and Cliff seems content to keep the
pack until he finds the rightful owner. With all the cards on the table, things
start to go awry, leading to Jenny getting kidnapped and Cliff going on the
run.
The movie wasn’t a box office splash, but there’s a possibility for a sequel to be made sometime in the future, perhaps shown on Disney+.
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