Almost more documentary than drama, if a bit hack at times

Rating: 8/10 (2 March 2020)

I can imagine that this version of Midway is going to get a bimodal distribution of reviews. On one hand, it is an excellent play-by-play depiction of the first few months of the Pacific War in WW2. It is tremendously detailed and for the most part factually accurate. Broad-strokes, every big event (and many of the small ones) you see in this movie really happened. The movie not only does a decent job of covering these events, but also gives a good insight into the strategy (on both sides) behind them. Historically-speaking, it's just excellent in a way that few war movies ever are. It's 1976 predecessor, as an example, got a fair number of the little details correct, but at the same time either ignored, glossed over, or got wrong a number of other things.
On the other hand, this (kind of like the 1976 version, but for different reasons) just isn't that good of a "movie". The acting is a bit hackey, and the dialogue isn't great. Harrelson and Wilson are great in their roles, as is the guy who playes Rochefort, and most of the Japanese actors, but the biggest roles of Dick Best and some of the other Navy pilots, are just not done very well. I'm not enough into this world to know if it's the acting, writing, or directing, but there's a fair bit of performance here that just isn't believeable for some reason. I guess they're trying their best, and for a movie of this kind of historical significance, maybe that's enough? As a history buff who has been reading on this topic since my early teens, I'll rate this movie highly for its accuracy, but I can see why a lot of people who either don't care about history or don't like war movies in particular just won't like it very much. If you do like those topics, and the thought of what humans go through during conflicts like WW2 makes a chill run down your spine, then you'll like this.
I will say, it is a FAR superior remake of this event than "Pearl Harbor" is to "Tora Tora Tora".