Very Disappointing

Rating: 5/10 (20 June 2002)

I normally like war movies, and I also normally like John Woo's films, so I was understandably excited about this movie. This film, however, left me severely disappointed. Woo seems to excel more with the mano a mano, one on one confrontations (witness the climax of Face/Off) than with mass direction of dozens of actors.
Here are a few of the problems I had with this movie:
1.) Nick Cage-- Now, usually, I have no problem with Cage. He is a solid actor, occasionally great. I just simply did not care for his performance and especially for his character (Joe Enders). Has there ever been a more unlikable protagonist in a movie? We're supposed to sympathize with Cage's character, he's had a rough go of it lately, lots of inner torment and all that. But I found myself saying "Wow, Enders is just a flat-out jerk. I hate him."
2.) The battle scenes-- I'm no expert on World War II, so correct me if I'm wrong, but were the Japanese as stupid in real life as they seem in this movie? Charging straight into a hail of machine gun fire? Weren't they defending Saipan? Just dig in and make the Americans come to you, no need to fix bayonets and stampede to your own doom. Of course, I'm no general either. Also, it didn't help that no Japanese characters were fleshed out. It was just "Yup, there's another nameless guy dead, and another, and another. Good shot, Nick." At least give us one evil Japanese colonel demanding his men fight to their last breath.
I will say, however, that Adam Beach and Roger Willie shined in their portrayal of the two featured code talkers. And while the Japanese defense made between little and no sense, the action scenes were for the most part very entertaining (which is what you expect from Woo). So, overall, Windtalkers rates slightly below Saving Private Ryan, and well below Patton as far as World War II movies go. If you're itching for a war movie though, just wait for We Were Soldiers to come out on video. Windtalkers gets a 5 out of 10.