Review of The Rocketeer (1991) by King S — 28 May 2011

Disney must have had quite a lot of high expectations from this film. It was a comic book adaptation coming right off the heals of Dick Tracy and Batman, had an even bigger budget than those films, directed by Joe Johnston who previously delivered the smash hit Honey, We Shrunk the Kids, not to mention had serious franchise potential. In fact, even before this film was released Disney was already preparing a sequel. Unfortunately, the film dissapointed at the box office, killing any franchise plans.

Well, I have to say that's too bad, because despite being one of the directors lowest grossing flicks this is actually one of his best, way better in my opinion than Honey I Shrunk the Kids or Jumanji, and also better than Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves which it opened against.

Bruce Campbell stars as Cliff Secord, a stunt pilot in the 1930's whose career is not going so well, especially when one of his latest stunts goes horribly wrong. His girfriend Jenny is an actress who has yet to get her big break and feels somewhat frustrated that Cliff is not being very open with her. Everything changes however, when a couple a thieves drop a rocket pack in his plane while trying to escape only to get caught by the police. Using the rocket pack, Cliff becomes a masked hero known as The Rocketeer. Unfortunately, an A-list actor Neville Sinclair, who was in league with the two theives, finds out who the Rocketeer is, and begins using Jenny in order to get to the pack to use it for a very dangerous (and unrealistic) scheme.

This film does require require some suspension of disbelief (then again, what do you expect from a film involving a guy using a rocket pack to fly?) but that's all part of it's charm, as it goes for an Indiana Jones feel to it, and while it's not as good as the first three Indy films (how many action films are?) it's still one of the better imatators. Johnston injects a lot of heart and energy into this film, offering one very entertaining adventure. The action is great, especially the battle on the blimp at the end of the film, and there are some truly awe-inspiring moments like when Cliff first learns to fly using the Rocket Pack, not to mention the cast is just as good, as this film has Bruce Campbell, Jennifer Connelly and Timothy Dalton (playing a villain no less), all favourites of mine. The ending of the film suggests strongly of the sequel that was never made, yet thankfully they didn't try to give it a cliffhanger ending and still wrapped up the story quite nicely.

All in all, this has everything you'd want from an action adventure film, from the setting to the action to the cast, and is the reason why I'm really anticipating Captain America this summer, because if Joe Johnston's second comic book film is as good as this one, then I say that Marvel has another classic on their hands.