If you can adjust to the style, it's awesome.

Rating: 10/10 (22 July 2002)

Clearly many viewers disliked this movie. Passionately. Chances are the same people hated Armageddon. Passionately. Michael Bay has a distinctive style which produces powerful reactions - either you go with it and enjoy the rollercoaster ride, or it doesn't work for you and his style comes across as shallow and painfully cheesy. IF you let yourself dumb down and take in the visuals instead of expecting a war movie in a similar vein to all the other recent attempts, you should find huge enjoyment in the film. Indeed, it was the second highest grossing film of 2001 behind Shrek which suggests it can't have been hated by everyone.
Personally, I think expectations were too high with people looking for another Titanic/Saving Private Ryan. The first hour is admittedly a little slow, but this is the price for the BEST 45 mins of action ever put to screen. This is the only film I've ever seen where the CGI is almost always indistinguishable from the real stuff. Somehow Lord of the Rings won the Visual Effects oscar instead, despite having some fairly poor effects at times. The hour of light-weight romantic build up gives the battle scene greater power by having such a strong contrast between the frivolous love story and such a momentous historical tragedy - especially in the recent Director's Cut which restores all the battle violence that was originally trimmed for the necessary PG-13 Theatrical rating.
The last part of the film was heavily criticised for it's apparent ridiculousness and what looks like a heavily contrived upbeat conclusion. However, the Doolittle raid is portrayed fairly accurately (most of Alec Baldwin's dialogue is a word-for-word copy of Doolittle's actual speeches). As far as the nastier details of the campaign are concerned (e.g. Japanese treatment of captured pilots), financial pressure from the Japanese market forced some omissions. As far as the somewhat contrived love story is concerned - blame Disney. They only agreed to put up the huge budget on the condition that a love story was included.
Basically, if you go with the cheese, the film is immensely powerful and entertaining. If you are just too cynical, or unable to enjoy "dumber" films, then there is little chance of making it through the entire film without vomiting.
Bay's style, like Tony Scott or John Woo, is highly distinctive and quite probably an indication of the style that will become more popular over the next few years as audience intelligence and attention spans continue to decrease. Perhaps then, Pearl Harbor will be more appreciated. Currently it is simply too uncomfortable a mix of Bruckheimer dumb action/romance and serious war film for most people. Those of you who haven't seen it, try the Director's Cut - you might like it.