‘Red Tails’ was the best film Lucas had made for some time but it’s still got those Prequel problems. I suspect Lucas used the same modus operandi, shoot the movie, see what you got and then re-shoot 50% of it against a green screen. The difference is that unlike the prequels, there was a decent Director and solid cast for principle photography. Which is probably why you felt…
I’d say one of the biggest things that dragged the movie down was the constant cockpit dialogue.
The acting was good/fine outside of those.
I’d bet Lucas did all that cockpit stuff on a green screen himself afterwards (Just my theory), as Hemingway is a proven talent with actors. He Directed half of ‘The People v. O. J. Simpson’ which was one of the best Directed/Acted TV shows of recent years IMO.
Despite the problems, RT played pretty well on the big-screen, if you were one of the few that watched it.