Patrick Wilson
On <b>November</b> 8, a new World War II movie "Decisive Battle of Midway" was released simultaneously in the United States and China, which showed the attack on Pearl Harbor and the later Defeat of Japan at the Battle of Midway. The film is directed by Roland Emmerich (Independence Day), and the cast is also star-studded, including Ed Scrin (Sleeping Curse 2), Patrick Wilson (Aquaman), Luke Evans (Beauty and the Beast), Alan Eckhart (Batman: The Dark Knight);
Nick Jonas (Brave Game: Showdown jungle); Darren Chris (American Crime Story: Murder of Versace), Jack Webb (Dawn of the Living Dead), Mandy Moore (Our Day), Dennis Quaid (The Day After Tomorrow), and Woody Harrison (Zombie Land 2). The film was well made, <b>had a high budget, had a great action scene, was gorgeously produced, and was entertaining and educational at the same time</b>. However, despite <b>the wonderful performances of the actors, the film sometimes feels emotionally empty</b>.
Luke Evans
The film begins with the Story of the Japanese attack on the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor in 1941. Soon, Navy pilots Wade McCluskey (Luke Evans) and Dick Best (Ed Scrin) appear, as well as Best's wife, Anne (Mandy Moore), who were all at Pearl Harbor on the day of the attack. The United States quickly declares war on Japan, and Colonel James Doolittle (Alan Eckhart) leads a bold airstrike on Tokyo before fleeing to China.
Meanwhile, telegraph decipherer Edwin Layton (Patrick Wilson) discovers that the Japanese are planning a surprise attack on Midway, and he must persuade Admiral Nimitz (Woody Harrison) to inform Washington to prepare for the upcoming campaign. Six months after Pearl Harbor, with the help of Layton and his team, the United States drew up a plan to lure Japanese warships out of Midway and have Best and McCluskey's dive bombers blow up Japanese aircraft carriers and eventually crush the Japanese.
Ed Scrin (left) with Luke Clay Tank
Director Roland Emmerich is known for shooting sci-fi blockbusters such as Cosmos, Independence Day, etc., and this time, he still maintains his noisy atmosphere and extraordinary visual effects style, which has a great influence on this World War II film. Although some of the pictures are made of CGI at first glance, and they are somewhat incompatible with the background era of the story, they play a good role in setting off the atmosphere of the war drama and make the audience deeply feel the sense of crisis of the war.
Some of the big war scenes in the film, such as the attack on Pearl Harbor, the bombing of Tokyo, and the Battle of Midway itself, are very amazing visual spectacles, and may be some of <b>the most shocking and best war scenes ever filmed</b>. My biggest dissatisfaction with the film is the script, which contains too many characters, too many complex <b>plots, and sometimes the story, especially the motivations of the characters in the film, are often overshadowed by those spectacular scenes</b>.
Mandy Moore (right)
The film casting is very suitable for the characters, but unfortunately, Mandy Moore plays a "worried wife" who does not have much room to play. Ed Scrin made himself famous with a villain role in Deadpool, where he played well as the protagonist, although his "New Jersey" accent needed to be improved. Colonel James Doolittle, played by Alan Eckhart, is brilliant, but his role feels like he's making his own standalone film, which has little to do with the main plot.
Patrick Wilson's performance is a central part of the film, balancing the action scenes well. He and Woody Harrison have performed several scenes very well, and the latter's acting skills are also stable, and he can also bring some small surprises to the audience. Luke Evans' performance is also quite good, but it is often stolen by big action scenes.
Woody Harrison
Musician-turned-actor Nick Jonas performed surprisingly well, playing a very brave aviation mechanic. The role made him sparkle and proved that he could be a charismatic movie star. Also worth mentioning is Dennis Quaid, who added a layer of solemnity to his role as Lieutenant General William.
What makes this film different from other World War II movies is that <b>it shows both sides of the war and does not portray the Japanese as villains who "blow their beards and stare"</b>. Again, however, the complex plot and big-scene action scenes crowd out the space for character development, and I hope to have more time for the audience to understand the intrinsic motivations of those Japanese characters.
It's amazing that Emmerich can cram such a huge story into a 138-minute movie, but I think <b>if they hadn't forced so many things into a movie, the movie might have been better</b>. Obviously, you want to create the atmosphere of the Battle of Midway, so it would be wise to start with Pearl Harbor, but Layton's telegram deciphering team and Doolittle's airstrike on Tokyo should have their own films to tell their story well.
Alan Eckhart plays Colonel Doolittle
There's even a side line in the film about director John Ford making a film during the war, which, while interesting, is completely redundant. The film would have been better and more complete if the story had focused on Best and McCluskey, and the sacrifices of their dive bomber formations, and the victory at the Battle of Midway.
Finally, Battle for Midway isn't a sensational film, but it does tell an important true story of courage, with some of the best World War II scenes ever made in a movie. The film pays tribute to the people of the world who died in war for freedom, and <b>only Roland Emmerich can produce such a big-scale, big-scene, action-filled, visual effects, and popcorn movie that meets the psychology of the masses</b>.
Dennis Quaid
<b>Other media commentary</b>
<b>Variety:</b>
Some war films are revered, such as Full Metal Shell, Saving Private Ryan, Field Platoon, and Bomb Disposal Unit; there are also popcorn war films that reduce historical events to action films, such as Pearl Harbor by Michael Bay and Jerry Brookheimer, or the incendiary Iraq war film American Sniper directed by Clint Eastwood.
In addition, there are movies like "Decisive Battle of Midway", a high-budget commercial blockbuster, that wants to amaze you with all kinds of bombing scenes, but the final effect of the movie is still more responsible for the audience. <b>From a narrative perspective, it barely passes</b> (although the film is more fluid than the disorganized, clichéd Battle of Midway in 1976).
At the beginning, the film shows the preparations for Pearl Harbor (and the attack), and the plot jumps back and forth between the japanese officer leader and the American army, and one of the American officers feels that since the late 1930s, the Japanese have been plotting something— Edwin Layton (Patrick Wilson), who was originally a naval attaché, later became a U.S. military intelligence officer, leading a team of people to decipher intercepted Japanese telegraph information little by little.
Isoroku Yamamoto, played by Yoji Toyokawa
The film's insistence on portraying the Japanese from an objective perspective is sometimes reminiscent of the 1970 Hollywood film Tiger! tiger! tiger! That movie is also about Pearl Harbor, and it was co-produced with the Japanese side, which can almost be regarded as a diplomatic act. "Decisive Battle of Midway" focuses on the arrogance of the Japanese army in Pearl Harbor: <b>Japan, which dreams of empire, can only swallow the bitter fruit of destruction planted by itself</b>. ”
<b>The Hollywood Reporter:</b>
"Putting aside the quality of the film, how many potential audiences will become the audience for films like Roland Emmerich's "Battle of Midway" in 2019? Audiences seem to have always had a demand for films that showcase Nazi horror, that embody the necessity of World War II; directors like Christopher Nolan like to try new ways to recreate the war in a way that fits the contemporary aesthetic. But <b>how many people want to see movies like "Battle of Midway" that stick to the nostalgic route? </b>
Tadanobu Asano plays Takumi Yamaguchi, a senior Japanese admiral
This kind of film uses modern digital technology to re-tell the old story that the United States has been telling since the forties. Even the history channel has now shifted its focus away from this history (and history as a whole) – perhaps because the number of people clinging to the romantic idea of the "greatest generation" is shrinking day by day.
Unfortunately, some movie buffs (like me) would theoretically like to watch so-called genre films recreated with 21st century values, but Battle of Midway is difficult to appeal to such an audience. Despite the high budget and talented actors, the film is still strange and difficult to impress. In the script of his first feature film, screenwriter Wes Tucker wrote blunt lines and strange movements that prevented the potential drama from being unleashed.
Nick Jonas
It is true that Emmerich filmed a lot of air combat scenes, and the fighter pilots crossed the roaring artillery and bullet rain to create a sense of horror, but <b>such a scene may be more effective in a movie like "Independence Day" about Earth's resistance to aliens</b>. ”
<b>The New York Times:</b>
"Battle of Midway is a new film that presents the decisive naval and air battle of 1942, directed by Roland Emmerich, who also directed Independence Day, which is arguably his pinnacle, while Decisive Midway can only be said to be unremarkable. The <b>good parts of the film are exciting and respectable, but the bad parts are a bit ridiculous</b>.
Darren Chris
The film continues the path of a number of World War II films (e.g., Tiger! tiger! tiger! 1976 'The Battle of Midway) – Unlike Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk, the film is more about scale than personal expression. To show the geographical complexity and everyone's story in less than two and a half hours, <b>Battle of Midway had to make the dialogue of the characters very straightforward, sacrificing the story for the sake of realistic form</b>. ”
<b>INDIEWIRE：</b>
"Pearl Harbor is at least chic enough. The best you can give about Roland Emmerich's Battle for Midway, a film as bland, featureless as Walmart, about the crucial naval battle of World War II, is that it doesn't portray Japanese characters as inhumane. In fact, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto and his men are still three-dimensional (but not enough) compared to the flattened cartoon-like American characters.
Director Emmerich was on set
The Characters on the American side are all the same, they talk as if they're all from Brooklyn, and they act as if they've just come out of the set of Triophon (a 1945 film), with names that sound like real people. It's so shameful that the film sometimes shows respect for both sides of the battle, where soldiers who go to war have the courage to give their lives for their country, while officers who command operations in the far rear never have to make such sacrifices.
The only desirable thing about Battle of Midway is that it reminds us that <b>America is strong because of those who are willing to live with their lives</b>. Alas, these people deserve our respect with better work than the hodgepodge of Emmerich's. ”