Mini Film Review – Midway

This weekend, I went out to see Midway; and it was a bit overdone! Directed by Roland Emmerich and starring Luke Evans, Ed Skrein and Patrick Wilson; Midway tells the story of the Battle of Midway during World War 2. The battle scenes are terrific and the visual effects work wonders to create realistic battle situations and vehicles. The air combat can be a little dizzying at times, but the overall effect achieved is fantastic! The film though does suffer from it’s acting talent. There is too much build-up to the actual battle and whilst it does show how the US got the drop on Japan, do we really need to see Pearl Harbour, or the Doolittle Raid, or everything else that came beforehand? The film likes to jump from scene to scene, and character to character, and is trying too hard to feature everyone rather than focussing on a select group. We go from one character to the next with very little connection between, to a point that you forget about other characters being in the film until the camera returns to them sometime later. The only time where there is a decent level of focus on a group or specific characters; is the Japanese officers; who as a result become the most interesting characters in the whole film, instead of the main protagonists! The only major standout on the American side comes in the form Dennis Quaid; who appears to be trying to audition for the role of Vince McMahon at the same time! The early parts are also dogged with extreme levels of overacting, clenched teeth speak, and heavy breathing bravados. The Action is wonderful, but there is a moment towards the end where a breather is thrown in, only for that to remove all adrenaline from the final scene of the grand battle! The visual effects are great and the battles are spectacular, but the rest is only worth it for the inclusion of Tadanobu Asano, Jun Kunimura, and Etsushi Toyokawa; and that’s about it!