Seriously, this movie is just a piece of expensive trash.<br /><br />Only thing really worth looking is probably the beautiful scenes of nature and nice places & people around. Photography is simply gorgeous! But wasn't this movie about WAR?<br /><br />Well, computer-generated war, without real dialogue or matter to discuss, idea to present, etc. Just 3D models and characters suitable for girly Sunday soap opera, not hard-boiled war movie.<br /><br />Even if it tries simply to be digital form of art and nothing else (I wouldn't call this a thriller or typical war movie of any kind), it fails also. I won't start with factual errors, they're clear to anyone ever opened history book. But the CGI... It's horrible. <br /><br />First, the CGI scenes don't look that good at all. For a 2006 movie, they seemed to use technology from year 2000 or so. The plane models don't have really any complex shading or any other modern light simulation applied, so everything looks even worse than a typical PC video game from same year. There's also heavily noticeable lack of realistic shadows. But this is not the worst part.<br /><br />Planes are extremely overpowered and feel like something Man hasn't built yet. Like superb aero-acrobatic devices even our modern technology can't do. It looks nice, but hey, wasn't this movie about WWI? Shouldn't those... things be a pieces of wood and cloth with a small engine applied? Simply motorized kites? But even that total mess-up in CGI and directing department isn't the worst part.<br /><br />The worst question is... where's PHYSICS? If CGI department would have recorded a demo from early 1994 flight simulator and used movement capture of game planes for ones seen in movie, they would get at least half of it believable. But in this movie, planes float. They have no mass or friction, no speed nor gravity. And in era of motorized kites, tiny amounts of speed and angles defined by physics law was what really decided who won the dogfight. It was all about pilot playing on the edge of plane's capabilities, milliseconds and laws on nature to gain this tiny, almost invisible advantage over enemy. No pilot had 360-degree freedom in 3 dimensions at constant speed. In this movie, it doesn't matter if pilot rises or drops plane, it doesn't lower or raise his speed a bit.<br /><br />And there's a terribly stupid scene with protagonist's gun jamming while enemy is at gunpoint. Just look at this: When enemy notices the problem, he speeds up and flies away. Why in the hell was he flying at gunpoint until then? Weren't German planes much faster and more maneuverable? Doesn't EVERY damn historical air battle-related book describe this?<br /><br />I won't even start with "romance" and "drama" portions from the movie. The unbelievable fights (to any sane man) and pretty actors already defined the target group of the movie: early teenage girls. So it's needed by default, even if it sucks in this movie. But why is the chosen topic war and why not skip all that lousy plane thing, just make another movie about nice nature and love?<br /><br />And why, oh why did director do strange attempts at discussing something serious, like racism, social classes, mourning, war refugees, etc? Either one of them... failed miserably.<br /><br />It's simply difficult to blame a movie for being bad if it's actually idiots' fault who made it.