Great bombing scene....but too cliche, too long.

Rating: 4/10 (17 June 2001)

Well, after 3 hours i could not believe how dismayed I was. Apart from 40 minutes of a great bombing scene I can honestly say the rest was cliche.
By the way, anyone see any similar traits to Top-Gun? Let me list them. 1 - T.G- Maverick did his fly-by the tower and got chewed out by his superior. P.H - same thing happens except the pilots play chicken.
2- Maverick had a signature move by braking his jet and then he uses it in battle and defeats the enemy. Well so to does the "chicken" game which gets used.
3 - A character called Goose appears in both movies.
4 - A shallow romance plot (just to appeal to those old romantics out there and serves nothing else)
5 - All the ritualistic hand signal/salute on the aircraft carriers.

I'll stop there. The romance scenes were over done to death. The old train departing gag with the man inside and female outside parting, for mabye the last time. (I wish it did..pewk)
American patriotism...over done...as if the soldiers swimming in the water would be cheering when they saw their fellow pilots shoot down an enemy zero. I would be swimming for my life with 8-10 warships ablaze and sinking around me and most likely be oblivious to what is happening in the sky. Also no mention of Australia....not a shred..which is very strange because USA did base themselves at Australia as the Japanese firmed their grip after taking Singapore. Again just like "Saving Private Ryan" - denies acknowledgement of other countries who also lost thousands of troops. Cliche American flag shot..been there seen that.
And the movie was about Pearl Harbour. It could have finished with the bombing and focussed on the tragedy. But nope the USA had to get revenge in some phoney suicide mission. We all knew how the war ended with Hiroshima and japan signing a treaty why place in that corny other stuff.
Someone told me this movie was like the Titanic...I wish i had listened as I would have skipped it. The only thing that makes this movie popular is clever marketing because it will not be from word of mouth.