Michael Bay should not have directed this.

Rating: Null/10 (5 December 2001)

Let me begin my comments on Pearl Harbor by saying this could have been a good movie if it weren't for Michael Bay. Now I have nothing against Michael Bay. I believe he is capable of directing fun, excitingly big stupid movies. But should a film detailing an infamous attack where thousands of Americans be big and stupid. No. Bay is just not the type of director that should be directing an epic picture of this scale. In my opinion Pearl Harbor could have been much more. There are scenes here that in a better directors hands could have been staged differently and perhaps more succesfully. A better director might have eliminated the cliche riddled plot, and axed the mundane storyline. He might have hired better actors or at least helped the ones he had into crafting a skilled performance. As I see it a movie detailing the attack on Pearl Harbor all the way up to the famous raid by General James Dolittle would be a very interesting movie indeed. But the problem lies with Bay and him alone. Its the way he directs. Scenes are too short that should be long. There isn't enough time to flesh out characters that are interesting, and with the fact that the three you have are about as interesting as a fly on a windowsill, thats a bad thing. Even the Japanese should be more insulted by this tripe since they are shown to be bloodthirsty war mongers who only wish to attack America so they can continue raiding China unabated. The only interesting character I found in the movie was a dog aboard one of the destroyers. This movie feels more like a three hour music video instead of an epic the size of The Longest Day, or The Godfather. If you should even be interested in the least of seeing this, be smart and do like I did; rent the DVD. That way you can at least skip to the battle scene (the only thing Bay seems able to do right) The only qualm I had with this is one bad special effects shot that shows planes that look the size of model air planes zooming by the sinking ships, and the fact that the overall feel of the scene made it feel like Independence Day, which dosen't really show any respect for an event of this magnitude.