Masters of the Air review: Austin Butler's Second World War drama fails to take off

There’s an awful lot of expectation surrounding Masters of the Air. Viewers haven’t just been waiting years for the nine-episode Apple TV+ series, on which production began in February 2021, some have been dreaming about the show for decades.

That’s because Masters of the Air is the companion piece to the critically acclaimed Second World War series Band of Brothers, from 2001, which depicted American soldiers’ invasion of Germany on land. The Pacific, its 2010 follow-up, showed the war at sea, while Masters of the Air takes the drama to the skies.

Based on Donald L Miller’s 2007 book of the same name, Masters of the Air follows a group of American soldiers known as the 100th Bomb Group, who in 1943 flew over to England to fight the Nazis. Over the course of their death-defying missions, the airmen have to quickly build courage and take comfort in their triumphs, as they come face to face with immeasurable loss on a daily basis.

There is plenty of creative pedigree behind Masters of the Air. Oscar-winners Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks are executive producers, No Time to Die director Cary Joji Fukunaga oversees the opening four episodes, with Captain Marvel filmmakers Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, Mudbound’s Dee Rees, and Game of Thrones’s Tim Van Patten overseeing the remaining instalments.

The cast of actors is hugely impressive, too. Oscar-nominee Austin Butler and Bafta nominee Callum Turner play the leading pair, Maj Gale Cleven and Maj John Egan, respectively, best friends who have two very different outlooks on the war. Barry Keoghan, one of film's most in-demand young actors, plays a supporting role, with Nikolas Kinski and Anthony Boyle rounding off the ensemble.

Which makes it all the more disappointing then that Masters of the Air fails to take off in any meaningful manner. Thankfully for a show that reportedly cost more than $250 million to produce, there are enough moments of high-octane action, loss and sacrifice to make the show enjoyable, but it never makes you fully invest emotionally or feel gripped by what’s unfolding.

Masters of the Air’s main issue is that we’ve seen much of what it depicts before, especially when it comes to its heroic characters. Creators John Shiban and John Orloff understandably look to be as respectful as possible to the courageous soldiers who sacrificed everything throughout the war.

But they’re almost too deferential. The result is that all the characters are earnest and sincere to a fault. They lack any complexity, feel one-dimensional, and, in the end, are frankly quite dull. Even though the show spends a lot of time with them, it never manages to establish a deep emotional connection between the characters and the audience.

The actors aren’t helped in their efforts by scripts that fail to look at the war from a modern and fresh point of view, while they also have to utter wooden dialogue and forced banter that’s often painful to watch. Especially from Butler, who occasionally drops back into the southern drawl he used in Elvis, even though Gleven is supposed to be from Wyoming.

Masters of the Air is at its best when it takes to the heavens. Production designer Chris Seagers does an exceptional job of recreating the aircraft interiors, which are so tight that it creates a genuine sense of the compact conditions the soldiers had to work under. Each director also portrays the horrific injuries and casualties in a detailed and gruesome style that looks more genuine than previous war movies.

Ultimately, though, Masters of the Air comes nowhere near to matching the high hopes of fans. Despite its impressive visual effects and the authentic way that it brings the era back to life, it’s too nostalgic. So much so that it even feels outdated. It’s not just those watching who deserve better, the people Masters of the Air is honouring do too.

Masters of the Air is streaming on Apple TV+ from Friday