Midway

I was kind of looking forward to a war movie with a classic cut, a big gimmicky spectacle to provide entertainment and escape, and not be completely stupid at the same time. Well, unfortunately, what I got was a very long and mediocre bore with a crappy script that didn't give a damn about almost any of the characters, overacting actors, and some surprisingly stripped-down stunts (they looked like backdrops during the attack on Pearl Harbor) and action scenes that only had juice here and there. Forget humor or anything fresh altogether, this is as much a disappointment from my beloved Roland Emmerich as 10,000 BC was the other day. Bay's Pearl Harbor is an order of magnitude better, though it's no gem either. (08/11/2019)

The ideal definition of a three-star film. You watch the central battle – an aggregation of pixels and an abundance of CGI-rendered frames – and catch yourself thinking: I’d rather play computer games than passively watch them. But then you get used to it, and ultimately you’re prepared to admit that the way in which the story is told does, rather surprisingly, have the qualities of an acceptable historical drama. We’re told a rather sparse backstory, which is for the better, and with the exception of the ending, Emmerich doesn’t force unpleasant pathos down our throats, so the net result is noticeably better than (if you allow the comparison) Bay’s Pearl Harbor. The latter was primarily a chick flick, whereas this is a sober and reasonable take on a major event of World War II in the Pacific theater. Nothing groundbreaking, but not a catastrophe either; I’d say Emmerich passes with flying colors. PS: Ed Skrein, well-known for being typecast as a villain, shows he can play nice guys too, when he wants to. Except when he’s chewing like a ruminant (at the beginning of this film) – then you want to punch him in the face :o). (24/02/2020)

I would never have believed that I would ever write this, but... Good old Bay's Pearl Harbor. Midway is an example of horrible non-art, even by Emmerich's standards. And that surprisingly includes the technical aspect, which usually saves him. I don't remember any film with such horrible dialogue, such poor acting by excellent actors (let alone non-actors). CGI is overused and lame here. And so there are common scenes where the actors do not fit into the picture or when the ships/aircraft/islands/clouds in the background are so scattered and blurry that even many retro movies would be ashamed of it. An unbelievable goof for a film that is nothing but effects. When they are no longer babbling and saying one cliché after another with a straight face, then there is action. Frequent, excessive, dumb. It's closer to X-Wings battling TIE Fighters than anything historical that would be at least partially rooted in reality and the laws of physics. There is so much extreme craziness going on here all the time that if someone put a reverse gear on the plane and just flew backwards, it wouldn't seem out of place at all. That is,  action that's unwatchable both visually and due to its content and uncharismatic characters from the ranks of the supremely unlikable. Compared to Emmerich´s other movies, it's not a clear guilty pleasure, because this time it's not (un)intentionally stupid, it's just desperately unwatchable and annoyingly long. The only slightly decent storyline is the one involving Yamamota/Nimitz, but that's all. (25/09/2020)

I hoped that the Americans would finally come to their senses and make a proper war film. CGI is already at such a high level that it should no longer be a problem (there is no need to create models of historical technology, etc.), but it was no good. Well, the attack on Pearl Harbor and the following action scenes were a nice surprise, but Midway didn’t work out so well. There were only four B-26 Marauders on the atoll all of which were the torpedo variant. I don't understand why no F4F fighters were generated, it looked really weird this way. If there’s anything that went well, it was the casting. If someone had told me before watching the film that Woody Harrelson would play Admiral Nimitz, I would have thought they were kidding. Having seen it with my own eyes, I’m amazed. I would like to give a higher rating, but it really pisses me off that the Americans aren’t able to portray the important moments of their short history more realistically. (08/03/2020)

Roland Emmerich directed a film with big battles in which the visual effects occasionally are quite dodgy, but otherwise it's an epic spectacle. It's just that when they are not fighting, Midway is pretty rubbish. Mostly because of poor character work, a dysfunctional attempt to evoke some emotion and pathos, and an inability to make interesting characters out of twenty sailors, pilots, and officers. Fans of big war films won't be offended by Midway, but don't expect anything exceptional either. (07/11/2019)