A grand miscalculation.

Rating: 5/10 (22 February 2011)

It would be easier to overlook the historical errors, the poor dialog, the spotty acting, and the overly glossy direction of Michael Bay were it not for the most glaring flaw of all. That being the script that makes the whole thing revolve around a pointless love triangle. With so much going on, the last thing on earth you will care about while watching this are the three main characters and their love for one another!
The script touches on many interesting aspects of the earliest days for the United States in WWII, and one wishes we'd learn more about some of them. How about an entire film about the Doolittle raid? That whole sequence is thrown together so hastily in the final half hour that you almost want to shout, "Okay, hold on! Who is Jimmy Doolittle? How did he put this thing together so quickly?" But even this sequence is polluted with elements of the love triangle. I'm sure Kate Beckinsale would have been allowed close enough to listen in to the radio chatter during the raid. Of course she would! More could have been learned about the Japanese and their motives for the attack. Especially with Mako playing their commander. He was always an engaging actor, and you'll want to see more of him. The film has a lot of decent actors (Voight, Seizemore, Baldwin) who you'd much rather see and listen too than Affleck and Hartnett. Come on Jerry Bruckheimer! You're a smart producer and clearly the man in charge on this set. Couldn't you see that the southern accent only made Affleck's acting seem worse? Wasn't there anyone there to doctor up some of the hilarious dialog in Randy Wallace's script? Or did they assume the semi-literate multiplex PG-13 audiences that pay to see Bay's films wouldn't care?
Pearl Harbor made a little money, but was far from the hit they obviously intended. The success of Titanic a few years earlier had to lead the the story being constructed in such a manner. But what a miscalculation thinking the two tragedies had anything in common. Ben Affleck's career has since waned after even more poor films. Josh Hartnett's also stalled after this film. Bay continues to churn out PG-13 commercial slime that often does make money. But thankfully his efforts now don't try to re-write and gloss over actual history. Now he is free to make movies about cars that turn into robots and throw punches at each other. He's much more qualified for that kind of thing. 5 of 10 stars.
The Hound.