Director Roland Emmerich released the new film “Midway” earlier this month. Photo from Lionsgate.com.
“Midway” is the latest war action drama based on the events of Pearl Harbor and the Battle of Midway. This was a passion project of director Roland Emherich with an all-star cast.
This film follows a variety of people involved in World War II after the events of Pearl Harbor as America tries to figure out where the Japenese may attack next.
In explanation, “Midway” is a well-intentioned and consistently interesting war film that utilizes many perspectives of the war to make up for the film’s mediocre script and slightly lackluster special effects. The opening Pearl Harbor sequence that encompasses the first half hour was both very suspenseful and quite interesting due to its focus being on several areas.
All of the film’s performances are decent with several standouts from Patrick Wilson and Woody Harrelson as Edwin Layton and Admiral Chester Nimitz, respectively. The only noticeable performance was Ed Skrein as Richard Best, who has a pretty heavy American accent that never truly changes throughout the course of the film.
The only disappointing segment is that the film did not go in depth into the story of James Doolittle, played by Aaron Eckhart. The film is also pretty cliche and predictable at points, but its war sequences are interesting enough to keep the audience’s attention. The jet sequences are especially well shot and paced to where nearly any audience would get invested in whether the pilots survive or not.
The action sequences are well-paced within the otherwise bland and forgettable inspirational dialogue that is only interesting when Wilson and Harrelson discuss the encryption of messages from the Japanese. Even though the movie becomes a bit jumbled, I admired the film’s ability to show the war from multiple perspectives. One sequence with a sinking Japanese warship was particularly interesting about the effects of defeat. The middle and climatic flying sequences where the U.S. attacks the Japanese marine fleet were very suspenseful and well-shot even when the special effects are not the best.
“Midway” does handle the deaths of its characters with grace, even if the messages of war and death are pretty heavy-handed throughout. The film doesn’t overstay its welcome and collectively gives well deserved conclusions to most of its characters. “Midway” is a pretty interesting and suspenseful war drama with plenty of good action sequences and a well-examined multiple perspective narrative that just can’t overcome its cliched script and repetitive inspirational moments. For me, “Midway” gets a 6.5 out of 10.