Midway

Rating: 5/10 (6 February 2020)

Roland Emmerich's Midway is a loud brash World War 2 action film with plenty of CGI. The inspiration might had been Star Wars rather than actual events.
After a prologue set in 1937 featuring Intelligence Officer Edwin T Layton (Patrick Wilson) and Japanese commander in chief Isoroku Yamamoto regarding Japan's increasing bellicose attitude. It then moves to the bombing of Pearl Harbour that marks America's entry into World War 2 and its aftermath.
The American navy need to fight back and hotshot fighter pilot Dick Best (Ed Skrein) wants to take the fight to the Japs.
Others like Layton and Admiral Chester Nimitz (Woody Harrelson) need to work out what the Japanese will do next and rely on their intelligence experts.
The film has actual real life players but it tries to cram too much and instead concentrates on the gung ho antics of Best and fellow pilot Wade McClusky (Luke Evans) both with dodgy American accents.
The subplot featuring Lt Col Doolittle (Aaron Eckhart) was of interest but it just faded away.
At least Emmerich did not try to emulate Michael Bay's Pearl Harbour with an attempt to make an epic World War 2 love story. The scenes of domestic life is perfunctory, most of the characters are broadly brushed. The green screen work is very obvious. It does come across as a middling shallow action film.