The fall of 2019 so far has brought surprise hits such as Todd Philips
Joker, as well as numerous box office flops despite achieving critical acclaim (
Terminator: Dark Fate, and Doctor Sleep come to mind). That trend continues with Roland Emmerich's ambitious WWll drama titled
Midway, a passion project of the big budget filmmaker, who's gone on record in citing the battle he experienced in terms of receiving financial support for the film. The end result led to Emmerich fundraising the films $100 million dollar budget, making it one of the most expensive independent films of all time. The film outside of the historical topic it covers, draws heavy inspiration from classic 1970's War films such as
Midway 1976, which starred Charlton Heston, and 1970's
Tora Tora Tora, which showed the events leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor through the viewpoints of both the American and Japanese military. Despite conquering the box office on Veterans Day weekend, the film received mixed to negative reviews from critics with much criticism aimed at the films lack of character development along with the films narrative issues. Both major criticisms can't be any further from the truth surprisingly.
Midway is not a perfect film by any means as its pacing feels choppy with the film struggling at times to juggle the attack on Pearl Harbor, along with The Doolittle Raid and ending with the Battle Of Midway. The overall film however, proves to be a reasonably satisfying effort coming from a filmmaker like Roland Emmerich, making it stand as being one of his strongest directorial efforrs thus far behind
Independence Day and
The Patriot. At
times, Midway feels like the movie that Michael Bay's
Pearl Harbor aspired to be in both the entertainment and historical department, but ultimately fell short of the mark due to copying the
Titanic formula with a sappy love story that placed the attack on Pearl Harbor second to the story rather than being the main focus.
Midway gets closer to reaching that mark despite its main fault of trying to cover all the major events leading up to the Battle of Midway.
The plot for
Midway begins with the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor with the film covering the aftermath, including the first six months after the attack with the American fleet and Imperial Japanese Navy clashing in a decisive naval battle, which became a significant turning point regarding the Battle for the Pacific during WWll. With the Battle Of Midway, Emmerich shows the scope and significance of the battle through the eyes of the leaders and soldiers who fought it on both sides of the coin. By doing so, he boasts a strong cast of actors that includes the talents of Ed Skrein, Patrick Wilson, Woody Harrelson, Luke Evans, Mandy Moore, Dennis Quaid, Aaron Eckhart, Keean Johnson, and Etsushi Toyokawa. Emmerich presents his story in an epic fashion, that makes it feel like a war film made straight out of the 1970's era with a visual look, that draws heavy comparisons to Michael Bay's
Pearl Harbor. Whereas that film centered the attack on Pearl Harbor around a corny love triangle. Emmerich's
Midway stays focused on the historical events surrounding the battle of Midway with most of the characters being based on actual people. The way that the film juggles both the American and Japanese viewpoints of the Battle for the Pacific, makes it come across as feeling like a distant sequel to
Tora Tora Tora. Both films share a similar narrative and story structure in which they focus on the events leading up to the films key moments with both sides motives explored. However like
Tora Tora Tora, Emmerich's film struggles with the character development coming across as feeling forced along with certain events feeling randomly thrown at the audience, making the editing feel choppy despite the films noble effort to showcase all the major events in the first six months of the American and Japanese battle in the Pacific.
Midway manages to overcome its issues largely thanks to Emmerich's decision to keep the film focused on the history aspect of its story, making the lack of character development for the younger characters forgivable.
Midway tries very hard to be the film that Michael Bay's
Pearl Harbor attempted to be in regards to honoring its history, while providing popcorn entertainment for the audience. It succeeds at being the latter as well as being a more noble war film than Bay's picture, but it's shortcomings ultimately hold it back from being a great film.
One of the films key elements that makes it work is the performances from its main cast. Keeping the tradition of classic war movies by establishing a strong cast as well as the typical Roland Emmerich disaster flick, which carries with them an endless cast of talented actors,
Midway proves to be no different than either type of film and has performances that range from being solid to strong for the most part. The older actors in the film perform much better than the younger ones with Woody Harrelson and Dennis Quaid delivering the best performances next to Patrick Wilson as the young intelligence officer Edwin Layton, who tried to warn others about Pearl Harbor before it happened. Woody Harrelson shines as Chester W. Nimitz, commander of the U.S Pacific Fleet who takes the information of Wilson's character to heart. Luke Evans does well playing Lieutenant Commander Wade McClusky, who leads the crucial aeriel attack that led to the sinking of two Japanese fleet carriers in the films climactic Midway battle sequence. Dennis Quaid commands the screen as vice admiral Halsey with the audience admiring his characters persistence in leading his men despite the revealing health issues with his character. As far as the performances of the young actors go, Ed Skrein impresses in the role of playing Dick Best, dive bomber pilot and squadron commander in the United States Navy during World War ll. Skrein does well in showing the courage and smart decision making, that his character conveys, which helped lead the Americans to victory in the battle of Midway. Mandy Moore gives a notable performance as Ann Best, wife of Dick Best, whose both supportive and fearful of her husbands decision. Luke Kleinyank and Keean Johnson deliver strong performances as young pilots Clarence Dickinson and James Murray. On the Japanese side of the story, Etsushi Toyokawa does well playing Admiral Yamomoto, commander-in-chief during the early years of the Pacific War as well as overseeing the attack on Pearl Harbor with Tadanobu Asano delivering an equally effective performance as Admiral Tamon Yamaguchi, who led a fierce campaign against the American fleet during Midway, along with ultimately choosing to go down with his ship when defeated. In terms of the films performances, the cast as a whole deliver strong performances with it being evident that they're paying tribute to their real-life counterparts. Even Aaron Eckhart shines in his minimal role as Lt. Jimmy Doolittle with the film showing his character leading the Doolittle Raid along with his characters realization of the aftermath of their mission with the Chinese allies forces being constantly bombed and slaughtered by the Japanese for helping the Americans during the war. The performances along with Emmerich's directing, are what make the film ultimately an honorable tribute to those who fought and died during the Battle of Midway.
In the directing category, Roland Emmerich demonstrates both respect and admiration for the films subject matter with him delivering his strongest directorial effort since
The Patriot. Emmerich presents both sides of the war and does so with respect and determination towards showing the events that led up to the Battle of Midway, giving both parties involved in the Battle of the Pacific an equal balance much like what was shown in
Tora Tora Tora. Given that Emmerich is a fan of 1970's Cinema, he shapes and molds his war film to feel like a movie that could've fit in well during that era combined with the technology of Michael Bay's epic blockbuster. Emmerich succeeds in creating aeriel battle sequences, that are both impressive and compelling to watch with strong visual and sound effects. The films cinematography is grand along with the art-set decoration, and costume design giving the film a 1940's feel along with making the battle sequences stunning to watch, particularly the attack on Pearl Harbor and Midway's epic battle. Given the films 138 minute running time, Emmerich keeps the story moving with a steady hand in regards to the films pacing. He blends intense action sequences with moments where the audience is brought up to speed with the status of the war through the action of the main characters, as well as the dialogue providing the information necessary to move the story along. Whereas
The Patriot glorified American patriotism and largely fictionalized events in it's story, particularly the main character with the film making him out to be a William Wallace type character in
Braveheart, as well as the concept of black slaves on his plantation working for free, Emmerich sticks to the facts in regards to telling the story of
Midway and chooses to give an honest portrait of courage, true heroism, and the use of one's intelligence which led to one of the greatest surprise comebacks in military history. Emmerich here is about paying respect to the past and he does so with sincerity, heart, and a desire to be both informative for young audiences, as well as delivering solid popcorn entertainment in the process. In those regards, he succeeds though he's no Steven Spielberg when it comes to making a war movie as incredible as
Saving Private Ryan or Christopher Nolan in terms of making a well-crafted piece of filmmaking such as
Dunkirk, which blends both technology and top notch storytelling together. What helps Emmerich here is the fact that he has a strong and compelling story to work off along with an all-star cast, who each add something to the film with the characters they play. The director whose track record suggests him to be either a hit or miss director in terms of making satisfying and largely unsatisfying films, appears to be at his best when handling stories, that revolve around the themes of patriotism and sacrifice, as evidenced by the films solid script.
The films screenplay by Wes Tooke is strong and chooses to lay out the events leading up to the Battle of Midway with the script giving a well-balanced side of both the American and Japanese military forces trying to outsmart the other in regards to winning the war. While the film does a very good job of showing the events leading up to Midway, the pacing and story suffers from feeling crammed together with the story beginning with the attack on Pearl Harbor along with shifting to the Doolittle Raid, then reverting back to Midway. Those are the three main events that the film focuses it's narrative on while placing character development second. Unlike Bay's
Pearl Harbor which puts the history secondary to the romance, Emmerich and Tooke keep Midway front and center in their story, with the characters having moments where they receive sizable development. The characters on the American side of the story, that receive the most development are Dick Best with him struggling to lead his squadron in bombing attacks on the Japanese carriers, while struggling with the realization that he may not come home to his family. Wilson's character is also given a large amount of depth with him struggling to uncover the Japanese next move in terms of striking Midway, with his frustration being visible in regards to the lack of seriousness his warnings about the attack on Pearl Harbor was given prior. Dennis Quaid character is shown to be fighting health issues despite choosing to lead his men to victory, and Harrelson's character being eagar to beat the Japanese at their own game, along with allowing Wilson's character a chance to prove himself to Washington. The Japanese admirals Yamomoto and Yamaguchi are explored with both men attempting to attack the American carriers unexpectedly, while slowly expressing doubts and facing the realization that for the first time, Japan could lose against an enemy. Unlike the criticisms aimed at the film which accuse it of being short on character development,
Midway has moments where it attempts to flesh out it's large ensemble of characters, but it always stays focused on the bigger narrative of the story, which is the films climactic battle sequence. Tookes script is well-written in a way which steadily builds up the tension on both sides leading up to Midway with both the American and Japanese forces knowing very well that their chances of winning the overall war depend on the success of Midway. Emmerich and Tooke do a fine job of keeping the story focused and keeping the audience engaged in the overall narrative of the story with characters they can care about while even empathizing with the opposite side. The development of the younger characters may not be as in-depth as their older counterparts, but it's effective enough to make the audience root for their survival and victory.
Midway is not a perfect war film as it suffers from minor faults, but the overall work succeeds and thrives from an entertainment standpoint, as well as honoring those who fought in the Battle of Midway along with those involved in the events leading up to it (The Doolittle Raid for example). Given that the film is handled by Roland Emmerich, he remains surprisingly mature and approaches the subject matter in both a serious and dedicated fashion to telling this story. While his work here won't win him any award nominations, Emmerich shows that if one gives him material that's historically based and demands accuracy, he is ultimately capable of pulling it off and delivering a reasonably solid film. For everything that Michael Bays film gets wrong in regards to presenting a film worthy of paying respect to it's history subject, Midway gets right and does it better with virtually the same intentions. It doesn't try to deter away from the subject of Midway by focusing on a love story, rather the film keeps everything simple and focuses on the two sides of the battle, which became a significant turning point in the war. With solid acting from a strong cast, steady directing and strong writing with some impressive CGI, Midway succeeds in presenting a modern version of the Battle of Midway, while showing the stakes and the faces of those involved. It's as honorable of a film as one can ask in showing the brotherhood, the courage, the strength, and sacrifice that went into achieving a victory that became a significant turning point in WWll, along with showing the intelligence that went into outsmarting the opponent. Given what this film could've ended up as if it didn't have the care and sincerity that the filmmakers give the story, Midway proves to be a solid homage to those who fought for a better future, while portraying both sides as being human.
Final Verdict: For history buffs as well as those looking for an entertaining war flick,
Midway is worth watching as it both entertains and respects the story it's telling.
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