Midway Review

Rating: 4/10 (18 November 2019)

This film was slightly better than I thought it was going to be. It's not a good movie but it's not terrible but what do I expect from director Roland Emmerich. It's definitely one of his better films but that isn't saying a lot. This has to be one of the worst scripts of the year. Every single line of dialogue was awful and insufferable. It was obvious that all the film cared about was its visual effects instead of its script and characters. Even though the characters are based on real people, they still feel very bland and boring. I don't know why they put Nick Jonas in this movie other than to just have him in the film. The acting from most of them isn't half bad. They are trying their hardest with the material they are given and do a good job for what the film is going for. Aaron Eckhart for his limited screen time probably gives the best performance of the entire film. Ed Skrein does a pretty terrible American accent though. There were aspects to the presentation of the film I did appreciate. Before I saw the film, I did some research on the Battle of Midway and the film was actually very historically accurate. The dive bombers did miss a lot of shots and maybe only one or two would manage to land a hit on the Japanese carriers. While some may call that cheesy within the film, it was historically accurate. I also like how the film didn't demonize the Japanese unlike a certain 2001 film (Pearl Harbor). It shows them as human too and that they were doing what they had to do to protect themselves and to follow orders. The action scenes weren't half bad but mostly forgettable although some scenes did look really cool. The visual effects weren't that bad either. They were pretty meh in the beginning but they got better as the film went along. Another thing I will give the film credit for was that it was for the most part entertaining. I didn't ever feel bored even with the 2 and a half hour runtime but that might be an issue for some. The music sounded like stock war film music and there was a large amount of war film cliches thrown into the film which were very obnoxious. Some scenes are loud enough where some actors have to overdub their voices but it wasn't properly synced up at some points which took me out of the film a little. Overall, Midway may be entertaining and very historically accurate but it falls victim to an awful script, bland characters, and too many typical war film cliches.