I just bought this film for my dad, a big history and war film buff. I thought it'd right up his alley with some historical facts and right up my alley with some exciting air battles. Boy was I wrong! The story was a complete drag! This clumsy, plodding script unfolds slowly and predictably. James Franco and Martin Henderson were horrible. Really it took all my strength to not shuttle forward to get to the battle scenes. The battle scenes were horrible as well! According to this film there are never more than 12 people on the frontlines of WWI and almost nobody bleeds. Granted I didn't see the film in the theater but the air battles were totally phony looking. My 72 year old dad with his bad eyes turned to me and said "this looks like a video game". There was no point where this film was able to grab my interest. Sure the design on the planes were cool but that had nothing to do with this film. So are you gonna see this film for the hokey unexciting battle scenes or the plodding script? There were two pros for the film: Lucienne the love interest is beautiful and it was nice to get a glimpse of what happened with the Lafayette Escadrille.