‘The Blue Angels’ Review: Dazzling Imax Documentary Showcases Top Guns, but No Mavericks

variety.com:

Todd Gilchrist editor Chronicling the eponymous Navy flight squadron across a season of demonstrations, “The Blue Angels” easily ranks near the top of the many Hollywood films to be considered “military propaganda” for their glowing depiction of the activities of U.S.

men and women in uniform. Whether or not that’s a good thing may come down to one’s feelings about the U.S. military. But in selecting for its subject an organization that performs a service that is itself public relations — and notably involves no battlefield operations — Paul Crowder’s Imax documentary feels both more honest than most in its intentions and more effective in highlighting that organization’s excellence.

Framed by the sun-up-to-sundown schedule maintained by the pilots themselves, “The Blue Angels” examines the precision, resilience and especially teamwork that goes into performing a series of dizzying, extremely dangerous aerial maneuvers.

Less a celebration of the U.S. Navy’s Mavericks than its Top Guns, the film focuses on several pilots — in particular, Angels first-year flyers Chris “Cheese” Kapuschansky and Scott “Jamz” Goossens — as they learn the difficult choreography and rigorous standards maintained by the squadron.