113
people found this helpful, as of 2023
ranked #239,028 most helpful
out of 571,544,897 reviews
★★☆☆☆
A movie which tries to tell everything but ultimately tells little
The good parts of this movie are the action scenes, and this is the only advantage it has over the 1976 version. It attempts to include everything - events prior to Pearl Harbor, Pearl Harbor, the Doolittle Raid, the Coral Sea and finally, the Battle of Midway. The result of this a choppy movie that jumps from event to event without a particularly coherent story in between, save for an excessive amount of sappy dialogue. Ed Skrein does a poor job playing a stereotypical loud, cocky pilot from New Jersey (that is when he isn't slipping back into an English accent), and he is joined by Woody Harrelson's imitation of Admiral Nimitz and Dennis Quaid's creaking version of Halsey. Skrein's acting is overdramatic and almost seems to be a parody of a 1940s film. Spruance is almost an afterthought, and his role in making key decisions regarding when to attack is largely ignored. The reasons for the Japanese failure to locate the American fleet earlier, as well as Nogumo's decision to rearm his planes after returning from Midway are either glossed over or not explained, nor was the role of American scouting planes in locating the Japanese fleet included. The result is a long movie with great action that doesn't do a very good job of explaining what actually occurred and why it occurred, and this is where this film is truly inferior to the 1976 version. Wait for this to make it to Amazon Prime or Netflix and watch it then.
