Midway movie review: A story is as engaging and powerful as the narrator or storyteller can make it. Trust me, with just a pause here and there, a narrator can create an aura of suspense and strike the right emotional chords. In just another second, the narrator can flip the story altogether with goosebump moments and change the mood. Now, imagine what can happen if this powerful skill is used to narrate the story of war times.
The event that changed the World War II on its head
In 2019, acclaimed Hollywood director Ronald Emmerich released his passionate project ‘Midway’ to the global audience. Prior to that, he had given films like Godzilla, 2012 and White House Down among others. To complete his passionate work, Ronald Emmerich spent $100 million in the production of the film thus making it one of the most expensive independent films of all time. The film leads included prominent faces like Ed Skrein, Patrick Wilson, Nick Jonas, Mandy Moore and Woody Harrelson among others.
The movie was based on the true story of the ‘Battle of Midway’. The movie showcases roughly six months of the war which was fought in the Pacific between Imperialist Japan and the Americans. It revolves around the time period of the fateful attack on Pearl Harbour and takes us through the decisive battle around Midway Atoll.
As per cinematic analysis, the Midway movie is historically accurate and has rightfully emphasised the attack on Pearl harbour, one of the greatest defeats of the American Navy. Back then, the US had cut off Japan’s oil supply. After which, the Japanese used their carrier fleets to give a devastating blow to the US. The Japanese fleets struck the strategically located Pearl Harbour on December 7, 1941.
Some Japanese officers proposed an aggressive and radical plan to invade Midway Atoll. But the army turned down the plan. Later, the scenarios forced the Japanese Army to act on that audacious plan and thus began the decisive battle of Midway.
Terrible Direction and Screenplay
The director Ronald has terribly messed up with what could have been an engaging watch. Even after having a powerful plot line of attack, counter attack, the fervour of battles and the ups and downs of human emotions, the director couldn’t do Justice with the film. It was a classic case of trying too hard and failing miserably. Instead of focusing on human emotions and spinning the story around a protagonist, the director went haywire. If we properly analyse, it is clear that the director had too many stars to give screen time irrespective of the demand of the scene or the script.
The Hollywood director failed to comprehend the basic thing that a war movie is more than mind-numbing battle scenes. Rather than showcasing the ugly side of war and its impact on people, they tend to incline towards the grandeur of war. The story jumps irrationally with no efforts made to develop the characters, leave alone giving layers to any character arc.
Also Read: Why is Avatar the worst movie in Hollywood’s history?
Too dependent on CGI
The American-centric war-based movie Midway ends at becoming nothing more than a computer simulation with NPCs roaming around with no thread connecting them.
The Midway movie is a prominent example that, in producing a war-based movie, teams end up depending on technology and CGI which can’t take the centre stage all the time.
The screenplay is so pathetic that it has too many time skips. It touches a subject and then jumps even before the global audiences can comprehend the real intention behind it. Clearly highlighting that the director wanted to overdo the facts of the case rather than focusing on the significance and impact of the war.
Midway film is a clear example of how to mess up a good script and is definitely at the worst movie made on World War 2.
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