One third awful, two thirds great

Rating: Null/10 (20 January 2002)

The first hour of this war epic is enough to make most intelligent people turn off in disgust. The script is hilariously bad, the characters are wooden and unbelievable while director Michael Bay's irritating habit of letting few scenes last longer than a second, intercutting every other scene with a crane shot gets on the nerves.
Randall Wallace's dialogue seems to have been inspired by war comics where chracters shout: Aiieeee! when the die. The British come across is incompetent without the aid of good old Ben Affleck while the Japanese only ever say crucial dialogue such as: We have enough information...
Everything is spelled out for the lowest common denominator which is a real shame as technically this is a fantastic movie. Great lighting and sets, costumes by Michael Kaplan and the hilarious habit that characters have of standing in front of design classics. Blood transfusions are even carried out with the aid of classic Coke bottles. However, once the attack begins about an hour in, things get really interesting.
Take out the first hour and this could have been something really special instead of a desperate attempt to merge Top Gun with Titanic.