Midway 2019
The 1976 Midway was on TV all the time and I have watched it several times. That movie made some things up and showed footage from other battles as being part of the Battle of Midway and maybe doesn’t get great reviews. But it is hard not to love a story about an important US victory in World War II. Still, when a new version of the movie was released in 2019, the reviews were again pretty poor and I never got around to seeing it. In 2020 I was able to get the blu-ray on sale and finally watched it after recently brushing up on the Battle of Midway on Wikipedia and YouTube. The newer movie shows the role of code breakers who knew the Japanese would be attacking Midway and allowed the admirals to set up a trap for Japan’s fleet, which seems to be correct (and maybe not well known in 1976). One of the YouTube videos argues that once that trap was set and Japan started the attack on Midway, there was almost no way the Japanese could also hope to defeat the US fleet, and the movie shows a Japanese war game that made the same conclusion (not sure if that part is true). There was still a lot of luck and tactical stuff at play that would be critical to the result and mistakes were made on both sides. Anyway, back to the movie.
The movie spends a while establishing the context, starting (basically) with Pearl Harbor and then showing a couple of other engagements, including the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo. That’s fine, but it takes up the first half of the movie. Meanwhile, we are also getting to know some of the key characters of the movie, which isn’t a bad thing, since most of that involves the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise. However, I feel like spending all of that time on the context and focusing mostly on a crew from the Enterprise downplays the fact that there were two other US carriers involved, one of which was sunk. So they almost gloss over the battle and barely mention the Japanese attacks on the US fleet. In that sense, the 1976 movie probably did a better job of explaining the actual battle and some of the tactical issues, including the horrific losses of the completely ineffective torpedo bombers. The 2019 movie develops some of the characters, mostly Dick Best, a dive bomber pilot, and Edwin Layton, an intelligence office at Pearl Harbor, but also shows Admirals Nimitz, Halsey, and Spruance, as well as the Enterprise CAG Wade McClusky. I’m happy to establish characters so the audience can keep everyone straight, but again, it seems to be at the cost of explaining the rest of the battle. While there are some known actors playing the senior guys (Dennis Quaid and Woody Harrelson), the front line guys kind of run together. Some of the acting and lines are clunky at times, though the performances are generally solid (it doesn’t help that McClusky is played by brit Luke Evans, who played Gaston in Beauty and the Beast and the main character, Dick Best, is also a brit, Ed Skrein, trying to do a Jersey accent).
The CGI seems a little soft with poor lighting and textures, like they could have done a little better. The anti-aircraft fire seems overly intense and accurate like there is no way these guys could have made it down to the enemy ships with that kind of fire. The underwater explosions also look fake, which honestly have to because you could never see this stuff underwater. Still, since it is mostly CGI, they were able to show most of the ships and planes accurately (I think, what do I know?). So I feel like the movie could have been executed better, but I still enjoyed watching it, again, because it is one of the greatest US victories ever. I do feel like they get some of the details right that the earlier movie missed, but I wish they had spent more of the movie on Midway and not all of the other stuff. Centering on the Enterprise isn’t a bad idea since it was at nearly every major Pacific carrier battle and could actually work well if they were to make a series of movies about the war in the Pacific.
Written: 14 Feb 2021
Owned on: Blu-ray, DVD, Digital