Director Roland Emmerich is mostly known for big bang, popcorn films and his most recent outing Midway has met a somewhat cold reception.
If you’ve already seen the film’s trailers — and raised an eyebrow for their over-the-top CGI use — you should have an indication what to expect from this retelling of one of World War II’s key battles.
The reviews for the film have mostly been negative, but there’s been some in the middle while we found the odd semi-positive one.
Midway also earned some press for being yet another Hollywood film — in this case partly financially backed by mainland Chinese money — for cutting ‘sensitive’ scenes so it could be screened in China.
JUDGEMENT
“The Japanese are as clichéd as the Americans; they’re stoic and ramble off comments about honor while making thinly veiled threats. There’s even the famous line that also appeared in the 1976 Midway about “awakening a sleeping giant.” I know this line reportedly was spoken in real life, but it’s presented in a very hokey fashion here. The Chinese are also represented in a subplot featuring James Doolittle (Aaron Eckhart) that feels imported from a different movie. Considering that several logos for Chinese companies appear during the opening credits, these scenes must have been a prerequisite.” Odie Henderson, rogerebert.com
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“Still if you’ve never seen a WWII movie, this one likely will work for you on some visceral level. But if you have seen about 400 of these in the past 80 years since Hollywood has been churning them out, it’s strictly the advanced technology and the crackerjack flying sequences that are worth a trip to the theater. Like I said, Midway can be fun and entertaining to watch, but it seems like a movie that is a step out of its time with nothing new to say.” Pete Hammond, Deadline
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“Finally, the last on-screen wording says: ‘This film is dedicated to the Americans and Japanese who fought at Midway.’ The same fanatical Japanese military who killed over 40 percent of American prisoners of war or used prisoners for rifle and bayonet target practice? The same who massacred at least 20 million Chinese men, women and children? … Even in the movie, Japanese officers take an American POW, tie rope around his hands that has an anchor attached to the other end, and toss the heavy weight into the Pacific Ocean. But sure, Roland. This film was physically upsetting and is capable of ruining anyone’s weekend.” J.D. Simkins, Military Times
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“Simply put, it’s a lot dumber than Dunkirk, but never as pandering as Pearl Harbor. Fans of square jaws and shoulder-clapping are in for a treat: among the decorated officer class, you get Woody Harrelson winning the day in a tidy white wig as Admiral Chester Nimitz, Dennis Quaid giving gruff salutes to all the brave young flyboys, and Aaron Eckhart striding around with a bomber jacket in occupied China. Even the Japanese get an occasional look-in.” Tim Robey, Telegraph
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“Though the movie clearly wants to do right by the players in its story, it rarely brings them to life as real people; it also fails to go the other direction, turning them into the larger-than-life personalities that might fuel an openly jingoistic take on this material. Men take the time, mid-combat, to say things like ‘God damn it, that magnificent son of a bitch actually found them!’ But their canned amazement isn’t contagious, and, even viewed without the filter of one’s feelings about the morality of war, their feats are rarely thrilling.” John Defore, The Hollywood Reporter
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“The slice of history has been filmed before by Jack Smight in 1976 with an all-star cast (Heston! Fonda! Coburn! Mifune!), new-fangled audio process Sensurround and a great John Williams score. Yet despite better production values (if lower star wattage), Emmerich’s take doesn’t really up the ante on it, suffering from bloat and a similar lack of directorial intelligence.” Ian Freer, empireonline.com
