Big stars, big budget, big explosions... No brain.

Rating: 3/10 (11 January 2003)

*SLIGHT SPOILERS*
I'll start with a brief summary: This film is awful.
Perhaps the most annoying thing is that it has all the ingredients for a good film - the cast is strong enough, a big budget, great effects, powerful themes... but its all just gone horribly wrong.
The acting and dialogue are very sub-standard; since the movie has a really capable cast then I'll put the blame for that on the cringe-inducing dialogue (Danny, shot and bleeding... "I'm... I'm not gunna make it, Rafe!!"; Yamamoto on being told of the resounding success of the Pearl Harbor attacks... "I fear all we have done is awaken a sleeping giant"). The historical innaccuracies are numerous and varied - Japanese 'Zero' fighters were NOT green, for a start.
I could write so so much about how bad this film is, but I really don't have time. There are some great effects and one or two points in the film which are really powerful, but mostly it's just Hollwood being self-indulgant and kissing it's own (American) ass once again. Maybe in the next Michael Bay film we'll see how America won the battle of Waterloo, or how a bunch of brave GIs helped put out the Great Fire of London.
The last 20 minutes where Affleck, having just crash-landed his B52 takes out an entire Japanese platoon using only a pistol is just absolutely abysmal...
I guess it's worth watching but I'm truly worried that a lot of people will treat this rubbish as a history lesson - please, please don't!