Amelia: Movie Review

There are two peculiar (yet unfortunate) trends that are popping up on Hollywood mainstream films the past few years. First, is the remake. Films from the past that have proven successful are repackaged for the modern viewer. Sadly, as most of you would have noticed, almost all of these remakes are sub par compared to their older brethren. The second trend is the biopic in which a certain life of a famous (or infamous) person of the past is tackled. It seems as though that writers are running out of new ideas. Either that or most of these film companies just want to cash in on what is "in". We would like to believe the former is happening. "Amelia" intrigues us not because it is about Amelia Earhart but more so that it feels like her daring life won't be justified by a film and a haphazard decision for who decided to make this. We really hope "Amelia" will prove us wrong. Read on to find out people should fly away from "Amelia".

"Amelia" starts off on July 2, 1937. Amelia Earhart (Hilary Swank) is on the last leg of her second attempt to go around the world. With her is navigator, Fred Noonan (Christopher Eccleston), considered to be the best of his class. Flashbacks of Amelia's life is shown throughout the film. We see her amazement at seeing a plane fly as a young child and the event wherein she was recruited by business tycoon George Putnam (Richard Gere) to write a book. After being the first woman to cross the Atlantic, Earhart never looked back as she becomes one of the most famous women personalities the world has ever known.

As expected, "Amelia" was not able to give justice to Amelia Earhart's remarkable life - not even one bit. Worse, the way they depicted the America’s Sweetheart of the Skies was a frustrating experience and on some cases may have even tarnished her image. There was really nothing worth showing as the movie feels like it was not created to inspire viewers but just to cash in on Amelia's story. For a biopic, it lacks substance and development. Instead, it focused on too many specific dates with flashback upon flashback detailing tidbits on her life – talk about boring! This is nothing different from just reading a summarized chronology of events from a book right? We also do not get why the movie gave much attention on her affair with another man – it destroyed our clean image of Amelia and it did not even help in developing the overall plot. Hillary Swank did the best she could, while there was nothing commendable with Richard Gere and Ewan McGregor’s performance. Too bad they had to bring Amelia’s Earhart story to life – not only was it dragging but we absolutely did not pick anything good from it.

Rating: 1 and a half reels

Why you should watch it:

- old footage may be worth a shot for some
- flying scenes are inspiring on some level
- Hilary Swank makes a great Amelia Earhart impersonation

Why you shouldn’t watch it:
- dull, slow and boring – definitely wasn’t able to do away from the usual “blandness” of biographies and maybe even worse
- won’t exactly give you a deeper insight on the aviation icon, Amelia Earhart

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