a5c7b9f00b A dramatization of the battle that was widely heraldeda turning point of the Pacific Theatre of World War II. The 1942 battles of the Coral Sea and Midway island are retold through the points of view of both sides. When an audacious US air raid reaches Japan itself, Combined Fleet commander Isoroku Yamamoto orders seaborne invasions of Port Moresby in the southwestern Pacific and of Midway Island near Hawaii, invasions that Yamamoto hopes will smoke out the US Pacific Fleet for destruction before the full might of US war production can kick in. The Japanese are supremely confident of victory over the vastly outnumbered US fleet, but they are unaware that US Navy intelligence has cracked the Imperial Navy&#39;s codes, allowing the US to deploy aircraft carriers to maximum counteroffensive effect. I was very predisposed to like this film. So, when it debuted I went to the theater to see it when I was 12. Sadly, I noticed that the film was an abysmal mess. The only thing GOOD about the film was the rumbling of the Sensurround sound system at the very beginning (when it showed a bit from the Doolittle Raid). I saw it on TV years later, and it hadn&#39;t gotten any better.<br/><br/>The movie is about half acting and half old stock footage from WW2 air battles. The parts created by the studio were okay–lots of competent actors doing an adequate, though not especially inspiring jobs. However, the stock footage shows complete contempt for the audience. I am pretty knowledgeable about WW2 aircraft (and wasa kid, too) and I was very irritated to see planes in the movie that were not even in use until after the June 1942 battle. I guess this is sloppy but forgivable. But, to show stock footage of planes that literally change from one type of plane to another in mid-flight shows utter contempt for the viewers (MANY of which will spot these flaws). For example, you might see a dive bomber diving on a ship and then it shifts away to another angle and it is now a torpedo plane or fighter. These sorts of things happened A LOT–not just once or twice. Sometimes, the color of the plane even changed. And, to top it off, much of the footage was EXCEPTIONALLY grainy and unusable. And some, like the plane that splits in half on landing, have been shown 1001 times on documentaries, so they&#39;re terribly familiar.<br/><br/>Now I am not saying they should have blown up valuable planes just for our entertainment, but come off it folks! Films such&quot;The Battle of Britain&quot; and &quot;Tora, Tora, Tora&quot; did a much better job of at least ATTEMPTING to get it right!! They used models, existing planes and similar planes–not grainy footage randomly thrown together. This along with a little modern content does NOT make an acceptable movie to pawn off on the unsuspecting public. This is another great war movie that shows you a different perspective of battle, which is the view from the officers. In this view we see different high levels go at it about what course of action they should take to best protect their ships, and to destroy Japan. This means you loose a lot of action and battle scenes, but it is replaced with a great plot and the view of what goes on before and during the battle in order to make sure you get the advantage. The acting is also very good giving you a very believable sense of what it would be like to be a captain, or a commanding officer for Japan. Overall this is a good movie and it is a movie that anyone who likes war movie has to see. It is also one of the more well known movies so its worth seeing just so you can talk about it and have a good conversation with other war movie junkies. So i would say this weekend go out and rent Midway, its a great movie and is worth watching.
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366 weeks ago