The film was Stupid. I wished I had Not Watched it.

Rating: Null/10 (16 July 2007)

* out of ***This film is an adaptation of the events surrounding the tragic American event that took place on the military base Pearl Harbor. The lives that were lost will forever be a sad reminder of the horrible nature of war. Unfortunately, this film is not a good portrait of the event. I feel bad for hating this film so deeply because the event that it is about is not one that should be screwed around with, and with such a tragic event you would hope that all the people who decide to do stories about it do it with care and respect for the event.
Basically what this is is a three way love triangle in which the event of Pearl Harbor just so happens to happen right in the background. And with such an inconvenient event taking place at such an inconvenient time, everybody in the film, for no reason at all, is forced to act stupid and pretend that they don't know what they are doing. The only bright spot of the entire film is the Cuba Gooding Jr. character, who is brave, smart, and very memorable. Unfortunately, he gets surprisingly little screen time.
When the event of Pearl Harbor actually occurs, we are left a little underwhelmed. The same things blow up repeatedly over and over with very little care for continuity and humanity, and more for just technical effect. Take for instance the sequence in which a bomb hits a boat and sinks it. The result involves a lot of people flying all over the place in all different directions and being blown to several pieces by different planes. The effect just comes off as gratuitous rather than sad. The CGI is terrible.
The director Michael Bay, has made some very enjoyable action films that I cared for hugely. The Rock was one of the most entertaining action films of the 90s, The Island was entertaining, Bad Boys was pretty good though the sequel was just gross, Armageddon was the closest a film has come to giving me a heart attack, and Transformers was alright. So far Pearl Harbor is his worst film yet!