Shallow summer blockbuster

Rating: Null/10 (7 June 2001)

With all of the money spent on "Pearl Harbor," it leaves the audience wondering why the filmmakers couldn't have spent a few extra dollars to hire a decent screenwriter. The dialogue was sappy, full of clichÃ©s, and worst of all, boring. This being said, its not surprising that the most magical, touching, and exciting parts of the movie came when the thinly drawn characters said nothing at all.
As for all of those people so concerned with the film's historical accuracy - forget about it. This movie doesn't come anywhere near realistic. From the first glitzy shot of a wheat field in Tennessee a la the English Patient; to the triumphant pilots marching into their planes a la Armageddon (not coincidentally, also produced by Bay and Bruckheimer); to Ben Affleck waving an American flag and emerging as the hero, this film was clearly made to look and feel like a summer blockbuster rather than a war biopic.

Forgetting about plot or characters for a minute, Bay and Bruckheimer did what they do best - shot an exciting, expensive action movie (starring an exciting, expensive Hollywood star). The special effects and action scenes served their purpose, with the audience on the edge of their seats while planes flew overhead and battleships blew up for a good forty minutes. Other than the ineffective, nauseating, shaky camera shots, and blurred shots of the victims in the aftermath, the direction was decent. However, "all that" (as described by Beckinsale in the film) was over after an hour and a half of the over three-hour movie, leaving us wondering what could possibly be left of this story.
This is where the film takes its most downward turn, as we discover that there truly is nothing else to be said (especially with that mundane dialogue). The second half of the movie could've been a whole other movie, while screenwriter Randall Wallace tried to cram in all that he could into the already too long three-hour film. Affleck, Beckinsale and Hartnett were all fine choices for their characters (even though Beckinsale looked a little too similar to Liv Tyler in Armageddon), but were not given much to work with. I was more convinced of their love by Affleck gazing into Beckinsale's eyes than I was when they actually spoke. Furthermore, their romance is turned into even bigger schmaltz when it becomes an ill-fated (and ill-scripted) triangle between Rafe (Affleck), Evelyn (Beckinsale), and Rafe's best friend, Danny (Hartnett).
One more thing: if you're going to make a self-aware summer blockbuster, please don't base it on an important historical event. You might even try writing an original screenplay next time.