Battle sequence is outstanding but cliche ridden plot makes this average

Rating: 8/10 (24 May 2001)

It is difficult to know whether to start with the good or the bad so I'll be kind and start with the good points.
I should let it be clear from the start, least my negative points seem too strong, that I enjoyed Pearl Harbor - and it is hard to know why, but I enjoyed it in the way you are supposed to enjoy a summer blockbuster, a Titanic or more typically a Jerry Bruckheimer movie. If you approach these in the right frame of mind, empty your brain, don't think too much and let yourself be entertained (while not being too cynical or anal about historical fact meets historical licence). Then even if your favourite movies are the realm of Woody Allen and Neil LaBute (like myself) you can like a film like Pearl Harbor on its own level.
The positives:
The film held some surprises in the acting stakes, not least that Dan Aykroyd can be a very good serious actor (who knew!). Josh Hartnett is also strong and should come out of this the best, it can only do him good - high profile, leading role and he holds his own well. Cuba Gooding Jr, in a role that should have been bigger in my opinion, was moving and exciting to watch but the story used him far too little. Outstanding however, and I mean (am I really about to suggest that this film could get any statuettes!!!) supporting actor Oscar worthy as FDR. Almost unrecognisable under heavy prosthesis he delivers a believable and powerful performance that brings a sense of class to the scenes he appears in and is magnetic. You will be completely swept up when he is on screen, a performance that a Bruckheimer film really doesn't deserve and an audience wouldn't expect in one.
The centre piece battle sequence is also superbly staged. While you may be looking at your watch during the 90 minutes it takes to get to it you won't even notice the time flying by during this sequence. Appearing like the last hour of Titanic meets the first 30 mins of Saving Private Ryan the epic scale and grandeur will sweep you up and keep you enthralled. And then you are back to the plot! Damn!
Negatives:
The obvious choice for a new live-action Pinocchio, Ben Affleck is so wooden that you'd expect to see a woodpecker land on his shoulder and have a tap. To be fair he gets all the hammy lines and cod-heroic bravura that accompany a character in this sort of cliche ridden story (think Bruce Willis in Armageddon) but he fails to rise above it and this hampers the film. Equally all the women in the film, led by Kate Beckinsale, are given thankless roles and end up as caricatures. Beckinsale is fine but not good. She walks through the role giving the annoying impression that she could do better but can't be bothered.
The less said about the story and script the better. The dialogue is laughable (particularly in the first hour) and raises unintentional sniggers throughout. The over sentimental love story is about as contrived as a film can get and could be likened to an MGM musical in terms of realism! Randall Wallace (writer of The Man In The Iron Mask and Braveheart) may have done justice to the real life characters (Voight and Gooding Jr) and the battles but the story makes the script of Titanic look like Casablanca.
Equally Michael Bay and Hans Zimmer need to be dragged out and shot for trying to manipulate the audience into accepting a love story that doesn't work. The music wells up, the hero shots come into full effect the trademark Bruckheimer/Bay slowmo running and contrived close-ups appear from nowhere. I fail to recall the last time a film used music so much to suggest the emotions you should be feeling when you are blatantly not in the same frame on mind as Mr Zimmer, the composer. The effect is grating, you'll wish you had a mute button for the first hour, or preferably a fast forward button. Bay and Wallace have managed to get every movie cliche you can imagine into this piece (most within the first ten minutes which is an appalling episode in the young lives of our two heroes as way of a backstory) and if you make a list of them before you go you'll be able to tick them off as you watch.
To conclude the battle scenes make this worth watching on the big screen and Voight, Gooding Jr and Hartnett will hold your attention, but the story and dialogue let it down. An average film where it could have been great, but still a good entertainment is looked upon as such.