Top 10 Movies

(Nov 9 - Nov 11) Now showing @GSC

Midway

★★✩✩✩

FOR a film that seems to be well-intentioned, Roland Emmerich’s retelling of the pivotal WW2 naval conflict seems decidedly uninvolving. Sure, the battle scenes are arguably more accurate than the hotchpotch footage used in the 1976 movie of the same title, and actual historical figures get their due now that they don’t have to be written out of the film to make way for Charlton Heston.

It was a little jarring to watch Woody Harrelson being so momentous as Admiral Chester Nimitz, just days after watching him revisit the role of Tallahassee in Zombieland: Double

Tap, I must admit. And there’s Patrick Wilson, dedicated and tireless as Naval Intelligence officer Edwin Layton. And Brit actors Ed Skrein and Luke Evans being all stalwart while taking the mickey out of each other as Yank pilots Dick Best and Wade Mccluskey respectively. Ooh, and is that a moustachioed Nick Jonas as a daredevil tailgunner? Sure is! Emmerich and screenwriter Wes Tooke also go to great lengths to portray the Japanese commanders as disciplined, confident men devoted to the Emperor and to their duty (Tadanobu Asano is a standout as Admiral Tamon Yamaguchi, who famously went down with his ship ... not a spoiler, it’s history). But with all the attention to historical detail, Emmerich seems to have paid less heed to cinematic details – like engaging dialogue (a lot of what we get is Broken Arrow-level cheesy), story flow and building to a climax.

From Pearl Harbor to the retaliatory Doolittle Raid to the Battle of Midway itself, Midway unfolds like a series of unconnected and often dimly-lit vignettes. There is little anticipation for the titular battle, which is suddenly ... just there. At least the battle sequences are spectacular and the bombing runs, pretty nailbiting. –