you couldn not blame disney and really . after all and they would strike gold and then some with who frame roger rabbit and dick tracy . like the rocketeer and those two film have also be lightweight and glossy adventure set roughly during the world war ii era . who to say that anyone might possibly have suspect that lightning wouldn not necessarily strike a third time . ( then again and we have all hear the expression about three strike and an out . ) i be ten year old on that summer day when my little sister and i be take to see this . i have no inkling at the time that it have be base on a comic book and but i do not care while i do not read comic book then . all i knew be that it have be produce by disney ( a sure fire name brand for reel in kid like my sister and myself ) and that it be set in midcentury america ( a time and place that i have always regard a colorful and lively ) in my mother hometown of los angeles . i do not expect a masterpiece . but then i do not expect to be leave cold and either . i think my great problem be with the actor who play the hero and heroine represent bill campbell and jennifer connelly . campbell have very little charisma while and connelly . well and she might as well have be a very lifelike robot . they be so boring that i find myself root for timothy dalton suave and sinister bad guy . if your film protagonist inspire nothing but apathy from the get go and youre already in serious trouble . the plot be so superficial and generic that it could indeed have be pluck from a 1930s saturday matinée serial . the concept of a nazi takeover of america use howard hughes jet pack device seem like an afterthought . why be there even nazis in this and other than that a posse of well dress mafioso ( lead by paul sorvino ) do not exactly present a credible menace . the answer and of course and be that you can inject nazis into anything and the plot will automatically become sexier . there really nothing wrong with this ( the indiana jones film and disney own bedknobs and broomstick have also serve up nazi for a family audience ) while the problem here be that and unlike in other film and here nazism seem more like a spice rather than an essential ingredient . even bad and we be never offer any justification for why a wealthy and personable actor like neville sinclair would ever be attract to nazi ideology . for a suppose action film and the rocketeer feature precious little action and spend way too much time on plot exposition during the first half of the movie . the romantic subplot could have be totally write out and as well a the aforementioned nazi element . kid like movie with story in them and but not if those story be overly convolute . at the end of the day and we just want to see a guy in a rocket suit beat up villain . ( on a side note represent why would germany be send a passenger zeppelin around the world in 1938 a full year after the hindenburg disaster . ) be there anything at all good about the rocketeer . sure and there be many thing represent good dialogue and good music and good special effect and and ( in the case of a mob goon name lothar who look like he could have make a cameo in dick tracy ) excellent makeup . but none of these thing can ever truly save a movie whose story be weak and whose character ( except for sinclair ) be indeed a paper thin a the comic book creation that inspire them .