Mediocreway

Rating: 5/10 (11 November 2019)

What a missed opportunity! On one hand this movie has a great set up: a huge event that's easy to bring to film in a setting that's still somewhat overlooked when it comes to WW2 movies. It even manages to avoid the typical Pearl Harbor pitfalls and doesn't really bother with romantic subplots getting in the way of the main story. It's also a giant CGI fest that turns out pretty good. Mostly.
On the other hand...acting is bad. Like. Really bad. The first act in particular is horrible. The story is jumping all over the place, trying to make us care about way too many characters. The main character even manages to be an utterly unlikable Dick (pun intended) that walks around like he's the best thing the US has to offer. CGI also looks fake as hell in the first act. It's the sort of thing that'll pop up on an episode of the How Did This Get Made podcast.
Things sort of pick up in the second and third act with some impressive big fights but the story keeps on jumping around like it listened to Kriss Kross too much. The end is, of course, a giant Murica F Yeah eruption that had people during my viewing shaking their heads.
That might seem harsh, but maybe that's because there are the building blocks of a perfectly fine movie scattered all over the place. Better editing and storytelling would've made this movie genuinely good instead of mediocre.
Not that it isnt enjoyable so it's not a total warning to skip it. It's just... Meh.