Midway (2019) ★ ★ - How not to write a war film

(I actually quite like this poster.)

Midway is perhaps the important battle of the Pacific War. Definitely, the importance of that battle in the World War 2 goes head to head with the Battle of Stalingrad - and because of it, there were multiple attempts to make both into war films. In 1976, director Jack Smight brought it into celluloid with Charlton Heston, Henry Fonda as his cast. Sadly, I have not seen it so I can’t say how that film went. But, I have just seen Rolan Emmerich’s version, starring Ed Skerin, Woody Harrelson, Patrick Wilson and…Nick Jonas. (Why do everyone think casting Nick Jonas is a good idea for a film?) Other cast members include names like Dennis Quaid, Aaron Eckhart, Jun Kunimura and Darren Criss. (Darren Criss is actually brilliant in American Crime Story: Assassination of Versace). So quite a range of cast, eh? Not that they are known for their immaculate acting abilities. So in essence, the film is a definition of a ’history flick.’ Its effects were surprisingly…not so terrible. The climactic battle sequence is alright - it’s bearable. Woody Harrelson does acting. Oh, I also like how historically accurate it is. That’s about all the good things I can say.

I think the first obvious mistake is casting Ed Skerin as Dick Best, the most impressive pilot of the battle, who had sunk two (!) carriers in a single day. Thank you, Mr Best. You are the best. I really hate to say this about Skerin, but Skerin is born to play a bad guy. I cannot look at him and think ’hell, he will lead his squadron into battle and win this war once and for all.’ His cocky attitude at the start of the film definitely does not help. Just look at how malevolent his eyes look! But his looks aren’t the only problem with him. His accent is just terrible in this film. In fact, everyone’s accent is terrible in this film. As one IMDB user said, ’Apparently 90% of all American soldiers were from a mythical 6th burrough of NYC. It was like watching Guys and Dolls at a British community theatre.’ It definitely does not help that Skerin’s dialogues are all wooden, extremely cliched as well.

Oh, so writing. Oh my lord. What were they thinking when they were writing this? It’s obvious that some scenes were given more thought than other scenes. Well, even those scenes are pretty bad. But some scenes are extremely cliched and I don’t even have to watch the entire scene to know which words will be spoken. Then there are some outright terrible scenes that twist these cliche lines into something so, so terrible. These scenes are awkward at best and make me wonder if any consideration were given when they were writing this scene. I won’t spoil you which scenes those are but those scenes….are so, blatantly obvious. But the egregious mistake this script tries so hard is...trying to tell so many things at once and failing to tell it adequately. The film opens with the Pearl Harbour attack. There is absolutely no build-up for this. Then, we have Leyte Gulf. There is absolutely no build-up for this. Then, we have Dolittle raid. There is some build-up for this, but it's executed terribly and there is no clear resolution. The entire Dolittle scene can be cut by 98% and the film would still work. Then we have the final battle scene. There are some build-ups for this, but my lord, even Pearl Harbour does this better. There, I said it. Pearl Harbour knows how to build up tension and create an environment to tell a story. This film tries to do it but utterly fails to do so.

Part of me thinks the reason why this film fails so badly is that the writer didn't quite understand which character to balance towards. It's an odd mixture of Nimitz and his codebreakers, Pilots, second groups of pilots, third groups of pilots, then their wives, then the Japanese admiral, the Japanese captain, the Japanese Fleet commander...do you see the problem? These different perspectives could work to tell a great story. Think of movies like A Bridge Too Far. But god, the pilots have such a boring arch. Obviously, they play a significant role in the action scenes. But sadly, a lot of deaths and fights...just doesn't quite hit the nail. It's all because there isn't a buildup for anything. Even the midway battle scenes, the intricate planning and insane luck are portrayed in less than 10 minutes or so, and the rest 120 minutes are all these pointless 'character moments' that doesn't quite work well.

The sound design is also abhorrent as well. I cannot take any explosions, guns, flaks seriously in this film. They, at best, sound like snowballs and tiny bass drums going off on and then. At times, sounds don't match the visuals as well. The bass also seems to be boosted for no apparent reason other than adding 'woosh' sounds when aeroplanes pass by. Obviously, this experience might be slightly better if I watched it in an IMAX theatre. But based on what I saw...I doubt it.

I also found the designs...or general tone of the film to be a little too clean. I don't think it's solely based on visual effects. In fact, the visual effects add a little more 'grain' of sorts into the film. I found the set overall cinematography to be...clean. I really hate comparing this film but compare this film to the claustrophobic nature of Dunkirk. Or Das Boots. Why can't Midway give us a similar atmosphere? Why should it all be so...clean, neat and big? How am I supposed to believe that the United States was losing the war at the start of 1942 when everyone seems to be living like Great Gatsby? Looking good doesn't help. Looking believable so that it helps film help.

Overall, I rate this film two out of five. It's not necessarily a 'terrible' film as some scenes, especially battle scenes near the end, are executed quite well. For these moments, I think the film improved an entire star. I might even come back to these scenes just for the visuals. Rolan Emerich is this sort of director. He, like Bay, is a visual director. I still visit Pearl Harbour every now and then just to enjoy the visuals. It's a guilty pleasure of mine. So, I might do the same for this film too.