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Directed Roland Emmerich, Midway (2019) is a movie that has to be taken with pinchers due to its topic, it tries to pack a six month story from World War II into a single movie and I think that's the reason for low scores, the movie was not necessarily bad because to be honest the action scenes are very good and same goes for the drama but trying to explain the tactics and how it goes from the Pearl Harbor attack and several major events leading up to the Battle of Midway, this was a very ambitious project, this movie will make you question yourself if you are really following the story correctly and not only assume, it will make you want to understand how the US is staying ahead on the intelligence leak game and Japan motives but the movie doesn't make a good job at providing this information for someone who doesn't know the exact events.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6924650/
- Platform: AppleTV+
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The movie wants to be both an historical recompilation of epic events and action packed, an great combination although this time turns into a confusing one. The movie tries to balance serious military strategy including explosive action sequences, those nose dives by the bombers are epic, same goes for the air battles but its how the story is been told that got me lost in dialogue a few times. The movie in my opinion paid a lot of attention to details when it comes to the environment but I'm not so sure about the historical aspect since I only know the most common and popular stories out of this entire combat that took months.
The movie not only covers an ambitious timeline starting with the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor that based on the events of the movie could be avoided if they heard the right people who were trying to warn them, moving through the Marshall Island attack to the famous Doolittle bombing of Tokyo all the way to the final battle at Midway. The movie is full of stars and well known faces, but the story focus on Dick Best played by Ed Skrein, a skilled pilot who ends up becoming one of the key players in the entire battle, we also got Intelligence Officer Ewdwin Layton played by Patrick Wilson and next to him code breaker Joseph Rochefort played by Brennan Brown, working behind the scenes to try to predict Japan next move to stay ahead, at least in strategy because after Pearl Harbor they seem to be on serious disadvantage to the Japanese Navy.
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The movie mostly focus on the air battle and how USA Intelligence manage to crack Japanese communications to predict each of their attacks and movies all the way to Midway Island, it was putting the pieces together as it was not straight interception like pinch a phone line. The movie shows both sides of the war, the USA and Japanese commanders going at each other from the distance, this gives a way broader view of the conflict but it also makes it hard to keep track as they keep jumping from location to location, from land to the ships, back and forward.
The entire air battle does felt like Maverick for the time and then when the Tokyo bombing happen reminds me a lot to Masters of The Air. Woody Harrelson plays Admiral Chester Nimitz with surprising restraint, the moment I saw he was going to jump into the conflict I knew it was business, things had to change from that point but it was not as simple since he needed more than a good hunch from the intelligence department to stay on the tracks to win the battle and show DC they were wrong about what was going on.
It's only obvious Midaway (2019) is a movie told from the USA side but Japanese characters get a fair amount of screen time and development, if you didn't talk Japanese were probably the most confusing once to follow up but with subtitles it was ok. Most of their screen time comes up on the final battle at Midway where the movie shows the devastating impact of the crucial attacks by the USA bombers, I still try to imagine how does it feel after dropping that bomb and manage to get out, its that moment of watching many men pointing canons at your plain and shooting at the same time, watching and listening to the explosions and you just keep going getting bellow 1000 feet altitude to drop that bomb.
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USA dive bombers manage to sink three Japanese ships, those were Kaga, Akagi and Soryu. The movie does a great job at capturing Dick Best final bombing, trying to execute an attack almost blind since his his copilot was defending in the back at the same time, without been able to tell him how high they were so he knew he had to get as closer as possible. During this scene a times the hole anti air fire felt a bit overwhelming, I'm not saying it looks fake but it does look excessive, or at least it makes me question if it was actually like that or even worst. It was this point in the battle that change everything, with many experienced pilots who marked a turning point in the Pacific War. I can only imagine there is so much more to this story but this were the scenes with the most impact, an interesting part of the conflict is how Japanese officers would accept responsibility of their defeat, in a very particular way, going down with the ship, staying behind while it was been destroy so it doesn't fall into USA hands.
The events of the movie are very real, there is for sure certain scenes that were change to keep things spicy and for entertainment purpose but the overall events and sacrifices by each side was very real. The ending does feels rushed considering the epic scale of the battles and their historical significance with way more tape to cover but I find it hard to be done in such short time, would probably had to be a 3hr movie and then would have too many plot lines and subplots.
Midway (2019) is a decent war movie but I think it tries to hard to cover too much distance and time, from USA to Japan and even China that was very disappointing how they just fly the bombers over Japan and doesn't give any details about it, I say this because I felt in love with Masters of The Air. The details and quality production of the movie is very present, the actors did great too but its just the script that is too crunch in and doesn't let a big story spread its wing, this was a movie to probably be split into two or three to make more sense of it. I only gave it a 8/10 because I enjoy a lot the air battles but even after giving a good score I feel I'm only living the hype and not the actual drama of the story, totally recommended as I still think its a great watch but I know many will have a different opinion about the movie and even call it trash.
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