Review: Midway

 

The infamous WWII naval battle between the US and Japanese forces gets another cinematic telling here. Ed Skrein plays a gung-ho, cock-sure pilot, with Mandy Moore as his lady love. Patrick Wilson, Luke Evans, Woody Harrelson, and Dennis Quaid turn up as (respectively) Rear Admiral Edwin T. Layton, Commander Wade McClusky, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, and Vice Admiral William 'Bull' Halsey.

 

Director Roland Emmerich (whose best films are “Universal Soldier”, “Stargate”, and maybe “ID4”) remakes the 1976 war flick with only marginally less disappointing results. It’s not as bloated and epic-length, the battle scenes are more convincing and engaging, the dialogue isn’t as impenetrably jargon-heavy. However, ultimately this 2019 film is still a fairly two-dimensional experience, just with far fewer big name actors involved. Scripted by Wes Tooke (producer of TV’s “Jean-Claude Van Johnson”), the characters are largely cardboard cut-outs, with Ed Skrein probably faring best among the actors as a gung-ho type and he delivers a pretty good American accent, too. He’s got a charismatic swagger about him, but also brings a sense of true honour and bravery to the role. However, Aaron Eckhart barely gets a walk-on as James Doolittle (a shame because he’s quite good), and Dennis Quaid’s turn as an ailing, gruff veteran is an awful, wannabe Spencer Tracy type of thing. I think Quaid’s been delivering pretty poor performances for a while now, but this might just be his worst turn to date. Woody Harrelson, looking like George C. Scott in “Patton” is OK but not really doing anything terribly memorable, and Patrick Wilson is his usual forgettable self. Luke Evans is quite solid but underused, and a gorgeous Mandy Moore does the best she can with a stock role. Singer Nick Jonas is alright in a small part, he might have a future in acting if he wishes to pursue it.

 

It’s a very pretty film as shot by Robby Baumgartner (“Blair Witch”), but it’s got that Baz Luhrmann “The Great Gatsby”-esque sheen of artificiality/green-screen about it, which is a bit of a shame. Still, it’s very attractive. The best thing here are the action scenes, the battle footage is persuasive enough and certainly exciting. The original just showed crappy stock footage, which rendered things pretty inert. That said, the lack of interesting support characters and a not especially interesting plot (easier to follow than the original but hardly gripping) still end up making those action scenes not quite as effective as they could’ve been. For all of its many flaws, at least the 1976 film gave the Japanese characters some personality and emphasis (the only thing I particularly liked about the film), this version is especially lacking in that area.

 

A good look, some good action, and some fine swagger from Ed Skrein are all this rather generic, not especially involving war movie have. It’s ever-so slightly better than the 1976 film, but at the same time I wasn’t remotely surprised to learn afterwards that Roland Emmerich was the director. It’s very Emmerich/Michael Bay-type stuff.

 

Rating: C