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The Rocketeer Movie Review

The Rocketeer is a 1991 historical period superhero film directed by Joe Johnston and starring Bill Campbell. It’s a silly, kid-friendly flick.

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“Oh, for crying out loud, haven’t you read the papers?“

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It tells the story of stunt pilot Cliff Secord who stumbles upon a hidden rocket powered jet pack that he thereafter uses to fly without the need of an aircraft. His heroic deeds soon attract the attention of Howard Hughes and the FBI, who are hunting for the missing jet pack, as well as the Nazi operatives that stole it from Hughes.

Needless to say, this entire storyline is utterly ridiculous and obviously intended to appeal more to children than adults. The entire film is aggressively kiddified in tone, which worked as it must be great for kids, but for adults it ended up being much less interesting.

Yes, I did find the various thirties references and sets and costumes wonderful as the movie faithfully brought this great decade to life, and technically speaking, the flick is great. The effects are good for their time, the action scenes are very well executed, though highly overwhelming in quantity, and the score is also quite appealing. Still, the movie is based on pulp 30s entertainment, leading to a frivolous project instead of something more meaningful and better crafted.

Some sequences in The Rocketeer, especially the flying ones, are so charming, and so are those that at least attempt to add some drama and period details into the picture. However, most of the movie ended up being a chase scene after an action scene after a flight scene and so on and so forth with very little emotional investment or character development added into the proceedings.

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The result is a movie that is very limited in appeal as it’s only meant to be enjoyed by the children, the massive superhero genre fans and the nostalgically inclined people. For everyone else, the flick is only okay and nothing more than that. The main character is very weakly developed with Bill Campbell being utterly forgettable as a superhero, though the design of the suit I did find wonderfully retro. Jennifer Connelly is probably the most memorable member of an otherwise forgettable cast.