The Aviator Reviews
L.A. Weekly
Downright squeamish, skimming only the more palatable facts from the several informative biographies that exist of this increasingly secretive and paranoid man.
EDGE Boston
Surrounded by talented performances, DiCaprio nearly pulls off a trick as effective as the illusive world cast by Howard Hughes: it almost looks like he can really act.
Full Review
| Original Score: C
Top CriticMartin Scorsese's biography of the famously eccentric empire builder Howard Hughes is visually sumptuous if disappointingly hollow.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/5
WBAI Web Radio
All tabloid style gloss accessorized with brassy special effects, and bloated storytelling based loosely on period gossip.
Big Picture Big Sound
Its plot moves from event to event without a story driving it and the audience is left drifting along.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
Movies for the Masses
full review in Greek
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Independent
DiCaprio remains a lightweight presence, a cherubic man-child who one could sooner imagine fiddling with an Airfix set and glue than spearheading the adventure of modern aviation.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1/5
Blogcritics.org
No movie directed by Martin Scorsese has ever felt more like work for hire.
The Aviator could've been a Raging Bull brother film, given that masterpiece's crystalline purity of purpose and humiliated courage. But it brakes far short.
Someone is going to have to prove to me that those events occurred in that order. Watching The Aviator, I didn't buy a minute of it.
| Original Score: 2.5/4
Makes a credible, and often thrilling case that Hughes' greatest creation was the idea of the man who could do anything, but does far less well when rolling in the muck with those who would rather see a crash than a new plateau achieved.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
We may enjoy watching the spectacles, but we don't much care for, or even have a feeling for, the guy in the cockpit.
This handsome movie is an oddly well-behaved one to come from the preternaturally energetic Scorsese.
Freeze Dried Movies
Millions of dollars were wasted in Hughes' stumble to infamy, and I'm hard-pressed to get too upset by his romancing starlets or peeing in a bottle.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
tonymedley.com
Considering the almost interminable length of The Aviator and the accomplishments of its subject, the superficiality of this film is appalling.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/10
Uruguay Total
A cierta altura, El Aviador es cine puro, o las herramientas del cine aprovechadas como nunca al servicio de una historia.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
MovieWeb
The fact is the depth of Scorsese's latest never quite justifies its length.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Montreal Film Journal
Alas bigger doesn't mean better.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
Star-Democrat (Easton, MD)
If I were to name a most overrated film of 2004 it would be Martin Scorsese's Hughes biopic ...
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
