The Aeronauts

There's little groundbreaking about 'The Aeronauts', but that isn't to diminish what an excellent and genuinely thrilling experience it is. At its best, it's 'Gravity' in a hot air balloon, a nail-biting and awe-inspiring adventure of human beings pitted against the ferocity of the elements. Tom Harper has done a sterling job elevating Jack Thorne's screenplay and imbuing it with tremendous tension. Even with its faults, 'The Aeronauts' knows exactly what kind of film it needs to be and does so with great aplomb. If you can see it on the big screen, don't miss the chance. Those set pieces deserve to be seen on as big a screen as possible.

• Daniel Lammin

Read Daniel's full article... https://www.maketheswitch.com.au/article/review-the-...

The Aeronauts ascends through the weathering clouds to deliver a beautifully panoramic adventure. The sky is our limit. Our ambitious endeavours, boundless by the mysterious stars that plague the night. Eloquent diamonds dancing on a twinkled canvas. The infallible lust for discovery, eternally motivated to make the world and ourselves more habitable. Safer. Predictable.

Harpers loose adaptation of Holmes novel, for better or worse, takes the capabilities of artistic licence and alters history for the sake of entertainment. Whilst unnecessary in depicting the scientific discoveries and world-shattering record at the time, Harpers daring adventurous thrill-ride passes through the stratosphere with vivid colours. Meteorologist Glaisher and...

The Aeronauts is a100-minute long illustration of the rule in Ebert's Little Movie Glossary that teaches us, "no good movie has ever featured a hot-air balloon," though it takes it less than 10 minutes to show why right about the point where a poor, defenseless dog is parachuted from a hot-air balloon; the animal makes a safe landing, which of course raises the question, how does a dog, lacking both the brainpower and opposable thumbs, successfully operates a parachute?

This film actually illustrates something else, and its that 'sex sells' has been replaced by 'gender sells.' The most significant balloon flight depicted here is based on the September 5, 1862 flight of British balloonists James Glaisher and Henry Coxwell.

However, w...

Well, I like Jones and I like Redmayne so I had high hopes for this, plus it was based on true events... and I understood that it was going to be exaggerated for dramatic effect, but I didn't think it was going to be a total rewrite of history.

I don't mind taking artistic licenses when making movies based on historical events... but I had no idea that Henry Coxwell was a woman named Amelia Rennes and I didn't know that she was the only one capable of doing anything of value on the flight.

But, I guess politics got in the way of history, and they decided that a total rewrite to the point where it was based around a fictional character needed to be done because the truth had too much meh patriarchy? Because they couldn't depict men as ...