Midway Movie Review

Midway (2019)

Rent Midway on Amazon Video
Written by: Wes Tooke
Directed by: Roland Emmerich
Starring: Ed Skrein, Patrick Wilson, Woody Harrelson, Luke Evans, Mandy Moore, Dennis Quaid, Aaron Eckhart, Nick Jonas, Darren Criss
Rated: PG-13
Watch the trailer

Plot

Based on the Attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent Battle of Midway during World War II, American soldiers attempt to defend against Japanese forces.

Verdict
While intense, this relies on a lot of tropes and even more explosions. This movie's focus is entertainment. While there is a subtext of war's destructive power, it's faint. This is about the good guys defeating the bad guys while destroying everything in their path. It's all action, most of the time. The objective is to cram as much into the two hours as possible, from irrelevant characters to even more CGI explosions. This feels like a movie I've seen before.
It depends.

Review
Emmerich has done a lot of 'end of the world' type movies, and this follows suit. It's full of explosions, CGI, and big moments. Midway is entertaining but hollow. The characters are standard tropes designed to get us to the next moment. There's nothing wrong with that, it's by design.

Ed Skrein plays Dick Best.

From the first few scenes the movie is intense. There are a lot of soldier tropes with Dick Best being the hotshot pilot who doesn't like to follow the rules. He's the closest thing to a main character. He's the best, and he knows it so everyone cuts him slack when he's insubordinate.

The subject matter is much better than Emmerich's typical movies. This does provide some great moments that capture soldiers' valor. When Bruno hops into a tied down plane to shoot down an inbound kamikaze, that's a big wow moment.

The focus isn't on narrative and development. Plenty of characters are thrown in just for emotional manipulation. You won't remember their names. The pilot lacking confidence is killed in his second scene through no fault of his own just to torment Dick Best. Even Captain Doolittle and director John Ford make an appearance. There's a lot of bloat. It doesn't make the movie bad, just long. These additions only serve to slow the plot down. John Ford is a wink that many people won't even realize.

The movie is little more than macho heroes with an explosion per minute quota. I enjoyed the movie despite the excess, but it does make it hollow.