Not real sure what this film is trying to say.

Rating: 5/10 (8 May 2008)

Here I am, watching Empire of the Sun, expecting a decent film about a real time in world history since it is directed by Steven Spielberg and starring a young Christian Bale, one of my modern-day favorite actors. However, don't be fooled; this movie is total disappointment from start to finish. It starts with giving us some basic information about the events that shook up Shanghai in the 1940s, but then it descends into almost total nonsense that I am still trying to decipher. Don't get me wrong, Bale is pretty good here and Spielberg adds some nice shots of the landscape of China, but the script is absolute crap. There is no sense of direction or clairvoyance of where the story should go. It is more of showing us Jim go from one Japanese prison camp to another, meeting John Malkovich along the way, and running around trying to avoid being killed despite being right in the middle of warfare. Overall, Christian Bale disappoints but you can't really blame him since he was only thirteen and has done much better since. As for Spielberg, the 80s weren't real good to him except for the Indiana Jones trilogy and ET. This one is certainly not one his best work and it doesn't even feel like a Spielberg film. So, skip this and don't waste two and a half hours watching Christian Bale run all over China. There is nothing here to walk away with.