This makes Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbor look like a masterpiece.
Let’s get one thing straight. Independence Day is a guilty pleasure of mine. And The Day After Tomorrow was pretty decent too.
But putting the director of those films, Roland Emmerich, in charge of this World World II film was a big gamble – and it has failed. Miserably.
It arguably has the worst script (as in laughably cheesy and clichéd) in war films history – and the special effects are sometimes as embarrassingly bad. And the emotional parts generally don’t resonate either.
It has a stellar cast with the likes of Ed Skrein (Deadpool), Woody Harrelson, Dennis Quaid, Luke Evans, Patrick Wilson and Aaron Eckhart, but this re-telling of the iconic and pivotal Pacific-based Battle of Midway between the American and Japanese fleets just doesn’t do it justice. Christopher Nolan? Steven Spielberg? Sam Mendes? Oliver Stone? Where are you when we need you?
It has a couple of decent dogfight scenes – with the story primarily based around Skrein’s kamikaze pilot Richard ‘Dick’ Best – when pilots risk life-and-limb to dive bomb Japanese carriers – and the drama has a poignant memorial ending – but bar that this is two and a half hours you’ll never get back.
Which is a hell of a shame.
Rating: 1.5/5
Gavin Miller
Cast: Ed Skrein, Patrick Wilson, Woody Harrelson, Luke Evans, Dennis Quaid, Nick Jonas, Alexander Ludwig, Mandy Moore & Aaron Eckhart
Running Time: 2 Hrs 18 Mins
Director: Roland Emmerich
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