Important historical event, worthless movie

Rating: Null/10 (12 April 2004)

It amazes me that Michael Bay could have so much money to make a movie about one of the most important days in American history and produce such a weak effort. I looked forward to this film, having a personal interest ingrained from stories my father related from his experiences that day. Fortunately, he survived the attack, too bad this movie survived. If you want to see a convoluted love story, its there, but as a historical piece it is sorely lacking. And for all those who were moved by the love triangle, I have this to say; if my best friend was MIA or killed in wartime, I certainly would not jump into bed with his girl. If you did not experience this emotion you were played. As to the historical, this movie was a joke. The depiction of the Doolittle raid had the planes, in formation, dropping their bombs on Tokyo when they actually flew individually, not wasting fuel to form up after takeoff. See "30 Seconds Over Tokyo" to see this event more true to life and as a good example of a Hollywood depiction of history.. In the attack scenes Bay had a large gap between the rows of Battleships off Ford Island and the Japanese planes flew between them. He may have thought this added intimacy but was ridiculously unnecessary. The ships were moored right next to each other, making this scene impossible. He could easily have shot realistic scenes of historically correct individual attacks that would have packed more dramatic punch. He used computer generated effects but dropped the ball on simple shots. And he wanted to make such heroes of Affleck and Hartnett that he insults our intelligence. Japan lost 29 airplanes during the attack and the director has them accounting for 7 or 8 of them, several during a laughable chase between buildings ending in a game of chicken. Maybe the scene where Tom Sizemore shots planes from the tower was used to make the chicken game only the 2nd worst air combat scene in this movie. If this were Star Wars or Independence Day it would be okay, they're fantasies; a skilled director would find a way to make a believable yet dramatic depiction of such an important piece of history. I guess it was easier for Bay to copy bad Sci-Fi, or Spielbergs underwater shootings(right after a unique shot of torpedoes passing under men in the water). I could go on forever, but I'll refrain. Basically this movie is a sappy love story with as bad a take on real history as any Custers' last stand film ever produced. Michael Bay had an opportunity to make a truly significant film and he gave us trash instead. The good news to filmmakers is that the attack on Pearl Harbor has yet to be made into a great film. Spielberg, are you listening?