"The Aeronauts" is an amazing film. After all, it's released by Amazon Pictures....yet has a huge budget. It's also one of the most visually arresting films I've ever seen and MUST be seen on the big screen, not your home television. This is because it's all about a famous balloon flight well over a hundred years ago...one that set a record but nearly killed the folks in the process.

Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne must have been cost Amazon a fortune...as well as the amazing aerial scenes (some done with balloons and some CGI...though it all looks amazingly real). It's the story about a world record-setting balloon flight in 1862 that it turns out ISN'T 100% true. Felicity's character actually was a woman balloonist who had died about 40 years BEFORE the film took place! The person who actually did the amazing things she did in the movie was a guy...a guy who received no credit in the film for his actions. This is why although I thoroughly loved the film when I was watching it (preparing to give it a 10),I was very disappointed when I learned the truth about the famous Glaisher flight.

A straight-up Victorian fantasy film in which a couple of early balloonists head up into the skies for an adventure in their prototype balloon journey. This is exactly as I expected it to be from the trailer, namely an effects-fuelled extravaganza in which CGI is used predominantely to animate the balloon and backgrounds and two stars acting in front of a green screen throughout. There are certain flashbacks to pad out and complexify the narrative a little, but mostly this is a two-hander. On the bad side, Eddie Redmayne is annoyingly earnest as always - literally the same performance you see in FANTASTIC BEASTS et al - but Felicity Jones is a lot more energetic, even if her character is pure fantasy given the moral attitudes of the era. The dialogue is poor but the adventure aspects better handled; at its best, this comes close to survival thrillers in the mould of FROZEN.

This is a fictional re-telling of the balloon flight of scientist James Glasher (Eddie Redmayne) whose study of the atmosphere paved the way for weather prediction. The film consisted of a perilous flight with flashbacks. The script created the flamboyant character of Amelia Rennes who pilots the balloon. This is modernization in order to create a strong female character and the fact that all the best films are love stories. Felicity Jones brings her own energy to the production. Just pretend it is fiction with a historical background.

Guide: No swearing, sex, or nudity.