Problems in the 4th Quarter

Rating: 8/10 (10 November 2019)

Through much of this, my title was going to be Now THAT'S a War Movie, but they stumbled at the end and lost a couple of rating stars in the process. This movie is almost the direct opposite of Midway (1976), an embarrassing soap opera which nonetheless eventually gets around to telling a slam bang story of the battle. In contrast, the lead up to the Midway showdown here was done handsomely and efficiently through a few characters. Unfortunately, once they got there the narrative got rather tangled and the CGI, to that point comfortably restrained, became comically, unbelievably overdone.
So I was very excited going into the final stretch and then pretty much disappointed. On the casting side Skrein was the rather animated and odd looking but an eventually effective star as ace Enterprise pilot. Evans was okay as the tense McClusky, although without much depth. Moore is always good and fit well as Skrein's wife, and Toyokawa as Yamamoto was exceptional. Harrelson as Nimitz was just poor casting but Quaid as Halsey was almost believable. Eckhardt as Doolittle was a better fit if a good half foot taller than his character.
So I would say very well done in many aspects. partly spoiled by overdoing the key moments in the climactic battle.