Greatness sometimes falters.

Rating: Null/10 (25 May 2004)

How far should sentiment go? 'Pearl Harbour' is the proof that it can go too far. Michael Bay's epic should have been great, it had all the right elements to propel into majesty of cinema but unfortunately it faltered. It is in short, too damn long! Full to the brim with unnecessary plot development that tried to make you care for the characters. It is a classic example of sentiment getting in the way, like 'Titanic' the film covers a moment in history that is so full of real life heroes who stories would have better been told instead of creating fictional one dimensional people.
From the opening scene, I found my self wishing for access to the fast forward button. It took too long to build up the rivalry between, Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett and also to introduce the love interest in Kate Beckinsale. There is no believability in their characters and I found this whole section of the plot pointless.
At 3 hours long I found the film 2 hours too long. The first hour leading up to the attack I found pointless, the attack it's self was stunning and well executed. But the part of the film that for me ruined it, were the Doolittle raids on Tokyo. There was no need for this to even be in this film. If it had ended once the presidents had made his address after the sacking of Pearl Harbour then I think personally that this film would be worth seeing.