Technically excellent, but plot is slow and hard to swallow.

Rating: 6/10 (25 May 2001)

**+ Romance, War Drama
A love triangle set against the background of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the Dolittle bombing raid on Tokyo. The color of Hawaii is beautifully reproduced in sharp detail. Cinematography is great. Much of the film looks like 70mm. Sound is incredible. The best special effects I've ever seen. Technically, the film is simply flawless!
However, the story is disjointed and somewhat hard to swallow. It frequently drags, and would have benefited from tighter editing. Yet I was disappointed so little time was devoted to historical events leading up to the attack.
But this film is primarily a romance -- with obvious comparisons to TITANIC. The attack itself lasts 40 minutes or more, and matches the intensity of the first reel of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. It does a fantastic job of capturing the complete and utter confusion surrounding the surprise attack.
There are Zillions of explosions, but relatively little gore for a war movie. In the end, I was somewhat disappointed. The audience I saw it with almost universally mirrored my feelings: "I've seen it -- once."