I'll probably check it out, after "JoJo Rabbit," but I'm not going in with high expectations. I think the Midway movie from '76 would be hard to top.
When we 1st saw SPR we were all amazed at the movie. So well done. It is one that can be watched and re-watched.
I just got back from it, saw it instead of watching the Colts-Dolphins. I think I made the right choice!
I really enjoyed it. The CGI stuff is just amazing. The story is good, probably more human interest stuff than I would prefer, but not like the nonsense in Pearl Harbor or the goofy Japanese-American love interest side story in the '70's Midway. The history is accurate, they did a good job of telling it.
I'm not really into "Remake" movies, but I would enjoy seeing a remake of Pearl Harbor...... one where we win.
The new Midway looks like some gratuitous effects.
That turning point of using what we call "Practical Effects" (no CGI) might be at an end.
Not a bad film, but a few quibbles:
(and, possibly, a few spoilers, so be advised!)
1) I find it tough to believe that Dick Best was as much of a cowboy as he was made out to be in the film. A few times I was wondering if I was watching an ersatz Pete “Maverick” Mitchell. His insolence toward Wade McClusky and Gene Lindsey would have gotten him in hack at least and probably court-martialed for insubordination. The real Best was an instructor at Pensacola before he went out to the Fleet.
2) Didn’t like how Arizona appeared to list as she was sinking after the magazine explosion; I always thought the bow section went straight to the bottom and the foremast toppled straight forward.
3) Nice touch showing the actions of LCDR “Slim” Townsend, the flight deck officer, riding a runaway torpedo that broke free from a landing TBD to a stop on the afternoon of 7 December. Yes, it really happened.
4) Inexcusable error 1: Too many Midway-based B-26s attacking Kido Butai on 4 June (there were actually only 4; it looked like at least 8 or possibly 12 in the film).
5) Inexcusable error 2: No Midway-based TBFs in the initial attacks on Kido Butai. Guess the CGI budget was getting depleted from providing the excessive number of B-26s??
6) Inexcusable error 3: Torpedo Squadron SIX from Enterprise was the second carrier-based torpedo squadron to attack Kido Butai, not the first; Hornet’s VT-8 (sole survivor George Gay) was first and Yorktown’s VT-3 was last (Best saw some “tail-end Charlies” from VT-3 inbound toward Hiryu after he hit Akagi).
7) Would have liked to have seen at least a cameo from Max Leslie, Jimmy Thach, and Lem Massey from Yorktown, but that would have added another 20 minutes to the film (which could have replaced the Marshall Island raid footage).
8) The camera angles and panning/zooming of the attack gave the impression that Emmerich watched too much of the revived “Battlestar Galactica” TV series from a few years ago. The “every round is a tracer” CGI looked like the battles between the Colonials and the Cylons using laser or particle beam weapons.
9) Woody Harrelson as ADM Nimitz wasn’t all that bad (story is that he went to the Nimitz museum in Fredericksburg Texas to research the Admiral), although he didn’t relieve Bill Halsey aboard Enterprise, but at CINCPAC Hq.
10) Best’s inhalation of caustic soda fumes didn’t last throughout the first bombing mission; and (according to Prange) only started coughing up blood on 5 June. Somehow he had activated latent TB even though he knew of no family history of the disease.
11) The story of Bruno Gaido and Frank O’Flaherty being thrown overboard by the Japanese has not been widely known. A third prisoner, Wesley Osmus from Yorktown’s Torpedo Squadron THREE, was murdered in the same fashion on another IJN ship.
12) A little disappointed with how RADM Spruance was portrayed; but Glenn Ford in the 1976 film and G.D. Spradlin in Wouk’s “War and Rembrance” were tough acts to follow. I especially liked how Spradlin’s Spruance told off Miles Browning for a poor job of executing the first day’s strikes without ever raising his voice.
But, at least, Dick and Annie Best (and their daughter Barbara) were real-life participants and not a fictional couple whose love story was Pearl Harbored/Titanic-ed into the film.
I expect I’ll go back and see it once more this week. I found it superior to the 1976 Mirisch production due to the absence of aircraft magically changing from F4F to F4U to F6F when they were supposed to be SBDs.
Free to disagree, you and me. I will point out that the video is primarily night shots, which look even more like the BSG battle scenes than the scenes in Midway 2019.I don't agree that the movie's special effects are overdone on the number of tracers in the air. WWII ships were pretty impressive in the number of anti-aircraft guns employed.
[video=youtube_share;N-o6FoBhFbI]https://youtu.be/N-o6FoBhFbI[/video]
That's cool! I really enjoyed him in Fargo.I will probably go see it this weekend.
I had the pleasure to meet Patrick Wilson (actor) a few weeks ago, was able to talk about the movie and a few past projects he has done. I had a Midway poster with me he scribbled on and signed it. He said it was his first Midway poster/or anything Midway he had signed. Super nice guy.
This is, in my opinion, all good reviews. It would have to get pretty bad INGO reviews for me to not see it. I have confess that I waited for a couple INGO reviews to make sure they didn't butcher it like they did "Pearl Harbor" before deciding to see it. Thanks for being the Guinea pigs.
I found a decent stream on my firestick, I may watch it tonight.