The Blue Angels 2024
I saw previews for this movie and definitely wanted to see it. But for some reason it is only showing for one week and only at IMAX theaters. They had me at Blue Angels documentary in IMAX. I love stuff like this. Not surprisingly, I really enjoyed the movie. Unlike a lot of IMAX movies like this, this is a feature length movie at over 90 minutes. They will probably cut it down to 45 minutes to show at science museums, I would think (confirmed). But I still don't know why they would rush to release this on streaming after only one week. It really needs to be watched and heard in IMAX, not on somebody's phone or TV on Prime.
The movie documents a year in the life of the Blue Angels, the US Navy's aerobatic team, flying F-18 jets. There are six pilots who each serve three years and two are replaced each year. They practice for a couple of months, then perform for most of the rest of the year, picking replacement pilots towards the end of that year. The only bad thing is they can't possibly squeeze everything I want to know into one movie. While we do get to meet the pilots and to a lesser extent some crew members, the big draw is footage of the planes in action, taken from the cockpit and from helicopters. Of course that footage is great. The season shown went from 2022 to 2023, so some of the pilots shown are still flying right now. The little snippets of info you get are pretty interesting like that the pilots can't wear pressure suits to fight g-forces. The pressure suits could affect a delicate hand movement on a joystick at the wrong time, causing catastrophe in the dangerously close flight formations. They also show the pilots doing a dry run at a conference table and it is impressive watching them all pull on their pretend joysticks at exactly the same instant in exactly the same way. It is also great to see people so dedicated and so incredibly good at something that is just way beyond normal human beings abilities and experience. It is like a high tech fireworks show. Watch it and be entertained, especially knowing these fireworks are people with a temporary assignment in the Navy.
Written: 20 May 2024