Midway - a new Roland Emmerich's movie...

[Trak-Tor]

It has got 6.8 rating at imdb.com for now.

Which is average, at most...

 

Juraj

[CATCplSlade]

On 11/8/2019 at 7:28 PM, Gazzas said:

 

That's an excellent point.  I've watched a number of foreign efforts at war films, too and most fall short in some way or another. 

 

Admittedly, the last war film I bothered watching was Bondarchuk's Stalingrad from 2013, which had its flaws but at least was mostly free of Hollywoodisms.

[chrish]

well....as long as it's not a musical, I'll give it a go

[LSP_K2]

Any hip-hop music in this film? That would really make my day.

[ringleheim]

The movie is currently "enjoying" a 40% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes!

 

Worse than I feared!
 

PS: I also noticed that the original "MIDWAY" with Chuck Heston and what not from the '70s is only 47% fresh at Rotten Tomatoes!  Not the greatest movie, but 47% fresh?

 

 

Edited November 10, 2019 by ringleheim

[cbk57]

I took my son to it today.  You can find flaws in it.  Like others have said about the cgi, military procedure and so on.  If you just go to enjoy the movie, my 14 year old really liked it.  It had a lot of history in it with some effort of accuracy.  I felt it did a good job reflecting some of the individuals that served in that time like McKlosky and Dick Best.  I thought it reflected well the dangers of flying at that time and landing those planes in carriers.  We enjoyed the movie in the end.  If you want to not like it you can find plenty of reasons not to.

 

I think what this movie did best was make the story relatable to a teenager.  It probably does not serve our audience well.  

Edited November 10, 2019 by cbk57

[mpk]

I had no idea about this film. I recently read Never call me a hero. I am so pleased a younger generation can be made aware of The battle of Midway. 

[Ryan]

Go see "The Lighthouse" and see if you can sit through that.

[cbk57]

Instead of obsession over the CGI it might be useful to make a comparison of the two Midway movies as a matter of big picture history.  I now feel the need to go back and rewatch the original.  Midway is among the most important battles in American history and a very interesting one.  I felt the new movie did a good job with many aspects of the history and big picture.  It acknowledged the early causes of Japanese aggression as well as the dynamic between Army and Navy.  It even paid attention to details like the Japanese tendency to demand absolute obedience to the point that they ignored alternative scenarios maybe in the planning.(war game scene and is that fact or fiction, but still a good illustration).  

 

The new one gives more credit for Midway to specific individuals in intelligence.  I am not sure if this is correct or not, I know more information has come out since the original movie.  However in the original movie there was much more drama about the chancy ness of the encounter and how reconisance played a role great role.  That seemed to be minimized somewhat in the new movie.  I really think the overall History is at least a B effort if not an A.  

 

I feel now after digesting the movie that the CGI is bad to the eyes of an expert because they compress the action and so make it look more spectacular than a realistic take might look.  I know that offends many here as many of you are military personal past or present.  However, to a non military non trained eye, it did keep my attention.  

 

I also would note that in the credits at the beginning a Chinese studio receives a great deal of prominence.  I noticed recently that China is taking a greater role in developing WWII movies in this style that rely heavily on CGI.  Bruce Willis was in one, I watched that one and it was really bad but there is something going on there and this seems like a more sophisticated effort.  There is another more obscure one that came out of China recently which i watched part of and it kind of followed this style of heavy CGI action with some acting in between.  

 

In the end I don’t consider this a great movie but I thought it was a fair contribution to the story and it does a great job of recognizing some of the individuals that played important roles in the story.  It brought some of these people more to life for myself.  I think it beats the original in that regard.   

[robertmro]

I haven’t seen this film but will probably try to watch it when it streams. My biggest obstacle is that I never got into video games which seems to be inspiration for the visuals. I also worked in the visual effects industry and how what’s possible. 

This film could have been realistic and still spectacular. 

 

My understanding is that young men make up the majority of moviegoers so that was the target audience. However I believe they are more sophisticated than the producers give them credit for. 

[cbk57]

25 minutes ago, robertmro said:

I haven’t seen this film but will probably try to watch it when it streams. My biggest obstacle is that I never got into video games which seems to be inspiration for the visuals. I also worked in the visual effects industry and how what’s possible. 

This film could have been realistic and still spectacular. 

 

My understanding is that young men make up the majority of moviegoers so that was the target audience. However I believe they are more sophisticated than the producers give them credit for. 

If my 14 year old son was the target of this movie, from his take on it the movie is a 5 star hit.  He really liked it, just short of a Star Wars sequel.  

[phantom]

I enjoyed the movie.

 

Mike

[dennismcc]

Well despite everything I thoroughly enjoyed the film, my weekly visit to the cinema is a sit back and go with it for couple of hours of relaxation, my wife who does not like "boys" films also enjoyed it, I could tell as she didn't fall asleep.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Jasta 14 addict]

It's a toy movie, the time spend at looking at this can better be spend at the modeling table.

[spacewolf]

Just back from seeing Midway.. not bad at all. I think for the general public who are not aviation nuts it is a perfect blend of story, action and history. I personally enjoyed the depiction of the Japanese side of things. Yes the flight scenes were way too unrealistic... but still they got the general point across. I predict a few more SBD's will be on the contest tables in the coming year ! :-)