Mid-ling.....

Rating: 6/10 (8 November 2019)

The Battle of Midway was a clash between the American fleet and the Imperial Japanese Navy which marked a pivotal turning point in the Pacific during WWII.
When you see that a film is directed by the man who bought us Independence Day and White House Down, you know that the film isn't going to be very subtle, or have the greatest script in the world.
But at least it could pass two hours without causing too much concern.
And this is what the film exactly is, nothing to be too concerned about. It tries to compete with other WWII films released in the past 20 years, but emulates them, rather than try to supersede them, which in all fairness, is a plus point with this film.
What we have is your token WWII characters we have seen depicted on film since the fifties, melded with CGI that isn't too bad, but nothing we haven't seen before.
It's not saying much, but Skrein has never been this good in a film before (just besting 'If Beale Street Could Talk' but he's only in that for a hot minute), as the central character, Dick Best (insert joke here.....).
He's the Maverick of the film, a misunderstood cowboy who grumbles at rules, and then listens to them begrudgingly, we've all seen this character a thousand times before, and you can see what his outcome will be from a periscope.
Then we have Harrelson, in his most restraint role ever, he may as well be wearing a stars and stripes suit, he is the epitome of flag waving, just call him Mr. All American.
Wilson has the sixth sense with the bloke who played Mr. Dresden in the orange Wednesday adverts. Ten years ago, this would have been played by Kevin Spacey, and the role would have been so much meatier. But Wilson is quite watchable whenever he is on screen.
Eckhart pops in for a couple of minutes as the hard as nails Doolittle, and like his characters name, he has very little to do, other than land a plane, and run off.
Evans is the Iceman to Skreins Maverick, and although Evans is good, in the actual film, his character is given little to do.
Then there is the star of the show, Dennis Quaid, who literally grizzles and chew scenery whenever he appears. He is hilarious for all the wrong reasons, and clearly awful, but I couldn't help but get excited whenever he appeared on screen.
As for the rest of the film, it's just your atypical 'people discussing tactics around a table film, intercut with familiar action set pieces'.
It's not a terrible film by any means, there is just no cause for concern with this film, and unlike WWII, it's pretty harmless.