Impressive, could've been better SOME SPOILERS

Rating: Null/10 (25 May 2001)

I must admit I wasn't as blown away by Pearl Harbor as I was when I saw Pte. Ryan, or even Battle of Midway aeons ago (ok, so I'm showing my age). As far as Great War Movies, this one is unfortunately low on the 1st-tier in my books, and that is mainly for the action sequences, which I knew Bruckheimer and Bay would not disappoint on. The first thing that really hit me about this movie was Red's character. I was scratching my head for the first 15-20 minutes or so after he was introduced, and then it hit me: Spud!!!! From Trainspotting!!!! My question about Red is this--in this day and age of sickening, pandering, PC-ness, is some newly-formed (if it doesn't already exist) American Society for Stutters going to protest? On to the leads. Rafe (Affleck) and Danny (Hartnett) really smack you hard in the face with the whole Maverick-Goose parallels early on. I half-expected Doolittle (Baldwin) to say "You two CHARACTERS are going to Top Gun!" when he had them in his office in the early scenes. And I figured Rafe was royally screwed upon arrival in England when I saw his plane had a French flag on the tail. And don't any French give me slack for that remark--at least the English didn't lay down and let the Nazis waltz right through their land. I gotta say that Danny was put in a bad spot with Evelyn (Beckinsdale) after Rafe's "death," but damn, claiming his best friend's girl???? There's gotta be a line somewhere...... Speaking of Evelyn, I didn't really care for her in the movie. Even the girl sitting next to me during the movie started to get fed up with her. The scenes in the base hospital when everything started to hit the fan were good, though, and calm under fire was personified through her rather well. The action scenes were great. I even ducked some flying debris a couple of times. All I can say about the USS Arizona explosion is "wow". After "Armageddon," Jerry B. and Mike Bay set the bar for themselves pretty high, and they met the standard exceedingly well. The explosions, the recreation of WW2 planes/ships/cars/equipment, the frenetic pace of action, and the wild camera angles are all poetry in motion. If only there was more...... Look beyond the pure action, though. The symbolism is apt. I just knew that the revolving door at the hotel HAD to stand for something, and if you look closely, there's a lot of circular motion throughout the movie, and sure enough, the movie ends with the very same scene it began with. Just what could it stand for? "The more things change, the more they stay the same"? Well, pray we never have to go back to a global conflict. "What goes around, comes around"? In the case of the Japanese, that would apply, and in the case of America, perceived superiority followed by a massive humbling followed by rise to prominence yet again. Sure, sounds good to me. I don't know, perhaps I'm overanalyzing, but the whole circles thing started the wheels in my head. Anyway, to sum up, it was a good movie. Not a great one, but a good one. What does it matter anyway? We all know it'll go on and make $100s of millions (maybe not in Tokyo, but having lost some family members to them during WW2, there is no love lost on my part). Oh, and one more note, Jon Voight as FDR-- brilliant likeness, well-played. I just want to know--did FDR really pull off that standing up scene when discussing options after the attack?