It has some good moments

Rating: 5/10 (24 June 2006)

When PEARL HARBOR was first released, I was, I admit, a silly teenage female. While watching the film, my thoughts were not focused on how historical it was, how well the plot developed, the emotions, or the acting skills. Instead, my thoughts went along the lines of: "Josh Hartnett! Ben Affleck! *SQUEE!*" I am pleased to say that this is no longer the case. I finally watched the film with a critical perspective, and must agree with many of the reviews. The romantic plot, to put it mildly, was not good. The actors were not very good, the script wasn't very good, and the dialogue was just awful and trite. I often found myself rolling my eyes and wondering when in the world they would get to the good action part.
As for the Pearl Harbor bombing sequence, that was (in my opinion) an amazing scene. The background music fit the mood perfectly, the effects were beautiful, and it just seemed to overall capture the true tragedy of the events. Of course, this was all ruined by the appearance of our two 'heroes'. They killed the mood, and I could just hear all of the preteen and teenage females in the world sighing and staring at the actors.
The after sequence of the attacks, in the hospital and the ships, was also quite well done, I thought. I found it very emotional and tragic. Of course, I did not feel this way when it was once again ruined by the appearance of the title characters, but lucky for me, they did not show up to much in either of these sequences.
After that, the movie just went downhill. We had to witness more clichÃ© 'plot twists', I suppose they meant for the pregnancy to be, and we had to see the actors attempt to act (and fail miserably.) But by far, the worst acting was shown at the end, when the character Danny dies. I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing. The whole thing was like a parody of a death scene, complete with touching speeches. I half expected Danny to whisper: "The light! I see the light!" He didn't say that, though he did mention being cold.
Overall, I suppose I must give two grades.
Acting: 1/5 Bombing sequence: 5/5.