Film Review - Born to Fly (2023)

This is the most conflicted I have been about a film in a long time. Before we start though, let’s address the elephant in the room. Simply calling Born to Fly just Chinese Top Gun is both a disservice and a valid comparison. While that sentence might not make sense, when watching Born to Fly the Top Gun similarities are there in full force, but it also tries to do something different. Born to Fly follows Lei Yu who s a team of other elite pilots to test new fighter jets. They have many conversations about the new type of pilot and how the up-and-coming pilots both must be skilled pilots but also great engineers and understand and improve upon the jets they must fly. Seeing them develop and improve the jets is fun. Seeing them discuss how they are a whole generation behind the enemy forces adds an interesting level of nuance and a different perspective to the military film. It leads me to my favourite aspect of the film which is the flying scenes. There are 3 major aerial sequences that are peak cinema, to be honest. The intensity levels and the drama are heightened, and the scenes will have you pumping your fists in the air with joy. To gasping and holding back the tears with how they pull at the heartstrings. While the CGI is noticeable during those scenes, I still think they look great visually and they are easy to follow.

But that is where most of my positives end and it’s a shame, I wanted to love this film and to be honest I was fully on board with the opening and the initial set-up with Lei Yu becoming a test pilot is interesting. By the mid-way point, I was becoming bored. The characters are extremely one-dimensional. Lei Yu is Maverick and Deng Fang is Iceman but unlike their Top Gun counterparts, they are not truly opposites so the reasons why they don’t like each other just feels hollow. That does not even address the rest of the cast that at a point simply becomes a blur and loses an overall importance to the narrative. However, a film’s greatest sin is to be boring and Born to Fly is at times mind-numbingly boring. I feel this as there are long stretches where nothing happens. I feel if the film was much tighter in length it would benefit the film. I hate saying that though as when the film is great it is great but when it is bad it is bad. While I do not regret watching it, I also would not rush to see it again.