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Aviator, The
EMAILPRINTMiramax Films / Warner Bros.

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 41 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 173 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by: John Logan
Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Release Date:
Theatrical: December 17, 2004
DVD: May 24, 2005
Running Time: 166 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for thematic elements, sexual content, nudity, language and a crash sequence
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Kate Beckinsale, Adam Scott, Kelli Garner, Alec Baldwin, Gwen Stefani, Ian Holm, and Alan Alda
Leonardo DiCaprio stars as aviation pioneer Howard Hughes in this biopic directed by Martin Scorsese.
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Bringing Out the Dead Cape Fear Casino Gangs of New York Goodfellas Kundun My Voyage to Italy Raging Bull Taxi Driver The Age of Innocence The Departed The Last Temptation of Christ The Last Waltz
TV: No Direction Home: Bob Dylan
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Variety Todd McCarthy
An enormously entertaining slice of biographical drama, The Aviator flies like one of Howard Hughes' record-setting speed airplanes.
Read Full Review >USA Today Mike Clark
Despite the film's sporadic lulls, both director and star are on full beam. The first and third hours of this 20th-century epic are as dazzling as big-scale movies get.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
Sumptuously exciting, glowing with expertise, seething with life, gorgeously designed and thrillingly articulated.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
If you didn't know that Martin Scorsese made The Aviator, the enthralling new adventure-biography of Howard Hughes, you might think it was the calling card of a neophyte visual genius.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
The Aviator, though, if not prime Scorsese, is the closest thing in a long time to the old Scorsese. What a splendid year-end gift!
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
It's not his (Scorsese) best film, but it's his most accessible and most thoroughly entertaining.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Chris Barsanti
This is Scorseses "Schindler's List", for better and for worse (mostly the better).
Read Full Review >New York Magazine Ken Tucker
The result is an admirably bumpy ride of a biopic, a rare one that leaves you feeling not safe but bracingly unsettled.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Tainted or not, Hughes' life was a remarkable one, and, flawed or not, Scorsese's film version deserves the same accolade.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin
A frenzied, sometimes overreaching biopic that paints in bold colors on a huge canvas, the film stars a never-better Leonardo DiCaprio--as perfectly cast here as he was miscast in "Gangs."
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen
Scorsese has crafted a rip-roaringly gorgeous-looking, beautifully acted biographical epic. But while firing on all cylinders, there's something oddly distancing about the picture.
Read Full Review >Empire Simon Braund
DiCaprio shines, dispelling fears that he hasnt the weight to carry such a complex, forceful role.
Read Full Review >Slate David Edelstein
But Cate Blanchett ... ahhhh. She doesn't impersonate Katharine Hepburn, she channels her.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
Its bravura, classic Hollywood filmmaking, and you like to think that Hughes himself would have viewed it, if not appreciatively, then at least with a sense of kinship.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
Martin Scorsese understands one character better than any other American director: the man who rises in the world to wealth or prominence without attaining what he wants most. That's why Howard Hughes is an ideal subject for this director.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Scorsese has crafted a luxurious entertainment that goes down like a flute of sparkling, silky champagne.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
Scorsese's most accomplished, most disciplined movie since GoodFellas. His most gorgeous, too, with the peaches'n'strawberries'n'cream palette of early Technicolor films.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
Running at about three hours, The Aviator is long, and the momentum occasionally flags. The depiction of Hughes's first mental breakdown feels a little obsessive-compulsive itself.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
The Aviator has a hole in its center, and Scorsese fills it the only way he can, with spectacle. He makes The Aviator colorful and entertaining from beginning to end. There are worse things.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
A flawed but entertaining (and perhaps informative) tale.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Scorsese, I think, is so invested in making The Aviator upbeat and rousing that the movie never quite reveals, the way that "Kinsey" or "Ray" or "A Beautiful Mind" or even a good E! True Hollywood Story do, how its hero's vision and his grand torments could be flip sides of the same temperament.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Has to be called one of the year's best movies. Credit goes partly to the built-in fascination of its subject and partly to its excellent cast.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
The movie equivalent of a lavish coffee-table book, a love letter to the Golden Age of Hollywood from one of its foremost students.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
As luscious as the filmmaking craft here is, it lacks the rude vitality, the unpredictability, the pure American craziness of the films that should have won him (Scorsese) the Oscar: "Mean Streets," "Taxi Driver," "Raging Bull," and "GoodFellas."
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Lots can be said for The Aviator as entertainment, though not much for it as edification.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Ella Taylor
A triumph of production design...As a character study, though, The Aviator is downright squeamish.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Corliss
Despite its star's heroic efforts, The Aviator is a gorgeous jet, flying on automatic pilot.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Watching the actors and gorgeous trappings is an adventure in cognitive dissonance. I didn't believe a single minute in almost three hours, but enjoyed being there all the same.
New York Daily News Jami Bernard
A lush, panoramic, dizzyingly portrait of the many-tentacled entrepreneur Howard Hughes. Unfortunately, though it may finally gain an Oscar for director Martin Scorsese, it is not his best work. The movie is disappointingly flat.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Manohla Dargis
Visually sumptuous if disappointingly hollow account of Hughes's early life.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
We may enjoy watching the spectacles, but we don't much care for, or even have a feeling for, the guy in the cockpit.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Brisk, glossy and gloriously art-directed, Scorsese's lavish biopic is a pop trifle, engaging but not compelling.
Read Full Review >The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann
This same film, shot for shot, line for line, could have been much more solid and engrossing, much farther up the Parnassian slope, with a better actor as Hughes.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Michael Atkinson
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.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.8 (out of 10) based on 173 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
[Anonymous] gave it an8:
I hated this movie so much so I gonna give it an 8. It is a well made movie and it is amazing. The story is great and DiCaprio and Blanchett are great. But there are so many annoying things about this movie. Like the editing for God sake. The editing in this movie was really amateur-ish and always cut the singers in the club scenes when we're trying to focus on our film's characters. And some of the OCD problems were just forced down our mouth. It's too long, and it lacks a point. An amazing movie with some great things and also great flaws.
Jeremy E. gave it a6:
It really pains me to write this review because this movie had soooo much potential. The acting by dicaprio and blanchett was PERFECT. They portrayed their characters so well. Another bright spot was the sound and cinematography. Everything about this film looked and sounded phenomenal. However, all of that goes down the drain because the plot is terrible. It's scattered, jumping from one thing to the other all the time and it doesn't really go anywhere. There's not really a story, more like a series of events. and the movie lasts about 40 minutes longer than it should. it's really sad because this could have turned out great but it sucked
masoud m. gave it a7:
I agree with those who say dicaprio was not the best choice for playing howard hughes' role, but this doesn't mean he is a bad actor.I have seen people with these kinds of mental diseas (i guess it was germ phobia ), and he depicted it so well that you thought he was suffering from it right in front of your eyes. But the problem is leo's face. He still looks like a teenager and when he plays a grown up person's role you just can't accept it. But as always martin scorsese's direction was awesome and although the movies runtime is nearly 3 hours but you never get bored. The other actors also were good, specially alec baldwin. I have seen it 3 or 4 times and I'm going to watch it in the future.
Gigi M. gave it a3:
It looks great, but that's it. Tedious and overrated. DiCaprio is horribly miscast; his Howard Hughes comes off like an arrogant teenager. Cate Blanchett, always good, reaffirmed my dislike of Katherine Hepburn. Not worth the time investment. Watch "GoodFellas" again instead to see what Scorsese is capable of.
[Anonymous] gave it an8:
I am not a Martin Scoreses fan. And even though I can get through 3-hour movies, I thought I would get through this. On the good side, this had a great cast and along with awesome acting. Leo Dicaprio is once again great and while I never was fond of Kate Beckinsale, she is pretty great. Also, this movie had have some great special effects. While most had to do with planes, one of the crash sequences were great. Also, this movie gave you an interesting story about Howard Hughes, who was an eccentric movie producer, inventor, and of course, an aviator. Now what I didn't like about the film. Cate Blanchett really annoying. Her acting and dialouge were great, but her character's personality and even her voice, there were times when I thought " Why is Huges dating her?" Also, it was kinda strange with the fact that Howard Huges repeated some of his words. For an example, I'm gonna give a spoiler. In the end, after he proved that his plane works, Howard Huges starts saying "The Way of the Future," and they put him in the bathroom. He then remembers when he was young and then he smiles and says "The Way of the Future" and then again four more times before the credits roll. Overall, I wasn't expecting much from this film, but The Aviator works and I'll probably see it again. I give it an 8.5/10
[Anonymous] gave it a6:
Pros: Very good, acting is incredible, highly believable, really worth watching Cons:TOOOOO LONG I actually watched this movie twice because at the movies i fell asleep, the second time wasn't as bad though
Jason B. gave it a0:
I'm here to expose the good people at netflix as a bunch of charlatans, for the movie I saw last night delivered by these good people apparently bore no resemblance whatsoever to the film the above and below appeared to be gushing over. The film netfix sent to me was a meandering, overwrought pile of self-indulgent arse. How can a film made about an airplane test pilot millionaire who slept with most of the best looking people in Hollywood turn out to be so dull? This my friends is a truly mystifying. I guess part of the blame must be leveled on that dufus Decraprio, I’m uncertain as to why Scorsese remains attached to this sinking piece of real-estate, one can only presume that as he still appears 12 years old, he hopes he’ll grow out of his prepubescent “bad patch” (which he’s been enjoying for the last 15 years) and will blossom into an actor. My advice would be not to wait too long! So I guess I should end on a positive note and suggest that this film made Alec Baldwin shine, but that was about it and I would suggest that’s not much of a return on 110 mill and 3 and a bit hours of my life.
