Amazing spectacle, but what happened to the script?

Rating: 4/10 (1 February 2010)

As we all know, the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 was a major event in history, so why not do a film version? I do applaud a film that takes on a very ambitious project, and this film is indeed that. However, I was hugely disappointed in this film, it had huge potential but it doesn't work.
Well there are some good things. Visually and technically the film looks phenomenal, the attention to detail is wonderful. The sets are realistic looking, the costumes are fine and the cinematography is stunning. The music by Hans Zimmer is pretty darn good as well, it really gives power to the climatic scenes. The action and special effects are very well done, the actual attack which forms the film's middle act is utterly riveting.
Sadly, everything else doesn't work. Shame really that one truly brilliant scene, a great score and wonderful visuals are literally gone to waste by a bloated plot, cardboard characterisations, questionable historical accuracy and an awful script.
Pearl Harbor is very long at 3 hours. Don't get me wrong I have absolutely no problem with long lengths, what was the real problem was the pace. It was so slow, that the slower scenes were close to tedious and there were parts at the beginning where I was finding it hard to keep awake. The plot is also very bloated, a lot is crammed in including a love story and old-fashioned heroics, but for a long film I was expecting a lot of attention to plot. But Michael Bay seemed to be concentrating a lot on the visual aspect of the film and seemed to have forgotten about the story. Consequently these details were underdeveloped, and the film is full to the brim with historical inaccuracies. The actors are undeniably talented, but they are given very little to work with. I had real difficulty empathising with any of the characters here, for me they seemed rather cardboard and clichéd. Ben Affleck and Kate Beckinsale both give lifeless performances and their chemistry is non-existent. Jon Voight is wasted yet again as Roosevelt, somehow he felt more like Dr Strangelove, and out of the cameos Dan Aykroyd especially is completely out of place. Bay's direction is also uneven, there are parts like in the attack itself where it is great but others where it is sloppy. But the worst asset was the script. It was AWFUL! It gave the actors very little to work with, and some of the dialogue instead of moving turned out to be unintentionally cheesy.
All in all, this film was disappointing. There are some good moments, but a vast majority of it doesn't work. 4/10 Bethany Cox