One of the better entries in Emmerich's filmography, but only barely

Rating: 6/10 (12 March 2020)

Midway is a war drama film directed by Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, The Patriot, 2012) based on the decisive Battle of Midway during World War II. Starring Ed Skrein, Patrick Wilson, Dennis Quaid, Aaron Eckhart, and Woody Harrelson, it is one of the better entries in Emmerich's filmography, but only barely.
In 1941, America chooses to remain neutral to the ongoing conflict raging across the globe. On December 7th of that same year, the American naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii is attacked by the Japanese, killing several people and forcing the US to enter the war. In the aftermath of this preemptive strike, the US stages the battle of Midway six months later, a subsequent retaliation against the Japanese at the US territory of the Midway Islands in the Pacific Ocean.
There's no denying the actual effort being put into making it look as modern and unbiased as possible, but this retelling of the battle of Midway still has some glaring issues. For a start, the film treads cliched territory with corny dialogue and flat characterisation of its real life subjects. Lines such as "This is for Pearl Harbor!" and "We have awoken a sleeping giant", (the latter of which was taken from the 1970 film "Tora! Tora! Tora!") feel like the typical over-the-top Hollywood sentiment one would expect from a war film like this. In addition, most of the characters were underdeveloped, being pushed aside to make way for an action scene. All of this is a shame because I believe all of these problems could have been avoided if only there were a better screenwriter at the helm.
Roland Emmerich, while I don't think he is a particularly good director, does actually handle this film surprisingly better than expected. According to some research, making a film about the Battle of Midway had been Emmerich's passion project for a considerable amount of time and it definitely shows at certain points. His choices in cinematography during the air battles are quite interesting, often featuring the pilots charging their way into enemy fire like the way an army of soldiers on the battlefield would advance into the crossfire on land. This style of creativity was previously shown in Emmerich's 2000 film "The Patriot", which was not a perfect film by any means, but came off as entertaining enough to prove that he could handle a film based on war with the right amount of precision and care to not be considered entirely terrible. In addition to this, I enjoyed the way he chose to show the differing viewpoints of the American and Japanese strategists as each side plans on how to deal with any potential attack. We see how the Americans tended to go for an all-out assault on their enemies while the Japanese were more about biding their time, patiently waiting out for the appropriate moment to strike.
As mentioned earlier, most of the film's characters felt underutilised and underdeveloped. If you're going to make a film about a real historical event that went the way it did due to the figures involved, you'd better make sure you do their characterisation justice. There were some characters that I completely forgot about as they were only in one scene and then we never see them again until the ending coda. If it weren't for the fact that some of them were played by well-known actors like Dennis Quaid and Aaron Eckhart, I would not have realised their importance in the story. With that said, Ed Skrein's depiction of Lieutenant Richard "Dick" Best was the only person I felt had some dimension to him. Even though the British born Skrein's attempts at an American accent came across as cartoonish at times, in particular his liberal use of "Goddamn it!", he at least had some likeability and admirable traits that kept me invested in what he may end up doing next. There were also some nice scenes with him and his wife, played by Mandy Moore, that did remind the audience of what he is fighting for, apart from his country.
In conclusion, while I do appreciate the effort Emmerich has gone to making something he has wanted for a long time, I believe he needs a better screenwriter to collaborate with. All of the potential is there in terms of his direction but the poor dialogue and character development is his biggest downfall. In spite of all this, I would much rather watch this film again than Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor.
I rate it 6/10