A missed opportunity

Rating: Null/10 (21 January 2002)

To sum up Pearl Harbor, i will say that Titanic has been blended quite well with Armageddon. With this combination in mind, you can get a good idea how Pearl Harbor turned out. While trying to remain faithful to the history books and to attempt a stab at humanity over the loss of so many lives, producer Bruckheimer and director Michael Bay have again gone for the glossy hollywood approach as well as the tried and tested slow-motion money shots and the stupid sequence which always occurs in their films - the bit where the heroes walk in slow-motion towards the camera. Why does Bay do this all the time? Are we meant to be wowed by this? Me thinks not. Pearl Harbor misses out on bucketfuls of heart in place of empty-headed, hollow-looking action, and makes the fatal error of trying to make its audience care more about three sad losers trapped in a love triangle than the lives of thousands of people who DID live and die on that fateful day in history. Admittedly, the battle is effective, but once FDR has made his little speech, the film changes reels completely in a awkwardly tacked on final hour when the inevitable death scene occurs to make the women cry and the men groan. Cue another slow motion scene of mawkishness and the obligatory pop tune as the credits roll. In short, a typical hollywood blockbuster messing up the history books. When will they ever learn? 6/10