Don't Listen to the Critics!

Rating: 9/10 (29 May 2001)

I'm not a fan of Michael Bay or Jerry Bruckheimer (in fact, I usually laugh all the way through movies like Armageddon, The Rock, Independence Day, etc. at the sheer corniness of the dialogue and story.) I actively dislike most blow em up movies, and am generally a fan of dialogue driven movies. I went to see Pearl Harbor because of its awesome preview and to see the special effects. That's it. Going in, I had already heard how terrible the dialogue was and the weak plot, but Memorial Day got to me and I decided to risk my 5.50 at the matinee.
Let me just say that I was VERY pleasantly surprised. (SPOILERS AHEAD!!)

Maybe they caught me on a good day, but there was only one line of dialogue that I laughed out loud during, and it came from Ben Affleck during the bombing. `Just get me to a plane!' Or something like that. Like Ben's going to take on the Japanese army. But really, that was the only truly bad line that I spotted during the movie. Even lines that COULD have been corny, from some reason didn't strike me as such during this movie. Maybe it was the setup, the scenes, the directingwho knows? But the dialogue isn't as bad as everyone is saying (and trust me, I'm a stickler for dialogue) and is light years above the dialogue in Armageddon.
People have complained about the weak plot in the love story. The central point of this film wasn't the love story. It was the bombing of Pearl Harbor, hence the title. Although, the title could have been (Ben and Josh save the day by shooting down 7 Japanese planes in) Pearl Harbor. Cheesy plot? Yes, absolutely, but for some reason it works. They needed something going on to build up to the bombing, nothing too deep or confusing, and they got it. They couldn't just start the movie with the bombing. We had to anticipate something, right? I actually liked the love story plot, even though it was reminiscent of a soap opera. (And I hated Titanic, by the way, so I'm not generally a fan of corny love stories.)

As for the lack of historical information, well, most of us, if we were paying attention in high school, learned about the history behind World War II. Hollywood shouldn't have to spoon feed us information that we can get from any history book. If there wasn't enough for you, go to Barnes and Noble and buy a book. I'm sure there are plethoras about Pearl Harbor now. It was a movie, not a documentary, not a history lesson. We got information relative to the bombing, and that was all we needed, not a primer on World War II. If you need more, tune in to the History Channel. They've been running Pearl Harbor stories all week. I know some of the information was inaccurate, but it's a MOVIE! It wasn't supposed to be a documentary. People are complaining about leaving out the Nevada. The movie was 3 hours long as it was. They couldn't include everything. I think the desired effect was achieved.
END OF SPOILERS!!
The special effects are amazing. It was emotionally wrenching to watch the bombing of Pearl Harbor. If anything, I think this movie will provide a lot of people with some information that they didn't have before about Pearl Harbor. Education of the masses is always a good thing.

As for the length, I thought the 3 hour running time of this movie flew by. All of the actors give wonderful performances, particularly Kate Beckinsale. I've never seen her in anything before this, but I'm a fan now. And Jon Voigt is great as FDR.
I really have no complaints, except that Kate Beckinsale and Ben Affleck are both such good looking people that it's a little distracting at times. (Josh Hartnett's not bad, but I'm more of an Affleck fan.) Oh well. And that it's going to be months before I can own the DVD, which is sure to be packed with cool extras.
Just don't listen to the critics on this one. I think that expectations outweighed being able to accurately judge what they really saw. You can't please all the people all the time, but I think Bay/Bruckheimer really did a great job with this movie. Sure, it's a little corny at times, but it's still an excellent movie.