Could you care any less for the characters?

Rating: 7/10 (27 May 2001)

I was very leary when I saw the previews for Pearl Harbor. Each preview showed the same thing, the bombing. And because of the producers, I was wondering if that part was even going to be good. Since those two have a reputation for "bang bang blow them up" type movies. I always wondered what is the rest of the movie about, since all they show is the bombing in the previews. Well I found out last night why they only showed those parts!
The movie is in 4 sections really. The first is a little background on the two main characters (Affleck and Hartnett). Then the love story begins. And I have nothing wrong with love stories. In "Enemy at the Gates" there was a love story and it was well done. But the love story in Pearl Harbor lacked emotion. While watching I could truly care less about the characters, because the love story was so weak and that was the only place to meet the characters. The only thing that kept me in my seat is the foreshadowing to the bombing. The scenes with the Japanese planning the attack to me was great. It added a lot of suspense and really created a tension that the love story lacked.
The next part was the bombing. This part was AWESOME. Very well made. YOu couldnt really tell it was CG, unlike some movies - cough - Mummy Returns - cough. The dog fights were good and it was just a good part of the movie. Now at this point I thought the movie was over. And that they put the love story in to make the movie longer. But in fact there was another 40 minutes.
This 40 minutes consisted of the two characters (Affleck and Hartnett) going to be apart of the Doolittle project. This two was a good part of the movie. I think if they had not put so much time into the love story the movie would not have been so drastically long and would have gotten a higher rating from me. The movie could have stood on it's own without the love crap. Go see it. It is worth it, but make sure you have 3 hours.