Midway

What Midway lacks in emotional drama it makes up for in grand battle scenes, strategic drama and CGI execution, creating a well-rounded drama based on real life events that shaped the battlefield of WW2 on the Pacific side.

It’s no surprise when a film is helmed by disaster director Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, Day after tomorrow) there’s going to be a fair amount of CGI created destruction and battles, which there was, however, the most intriguing part rested with the chess matches going on between the Japanese and Americans over the strategic regions of the Pacific ocean.

Being the first to strike and wage war on the Americans, the Japanese had the early advantage, despite the warning from senior intelligence officer Edward Layton (Patrick Wilson), who feared an imminent attack on Pearl Harbor.

The Japanese took out numerous battleships, resources and lives during the Pearl Harbor, but what became evident throughout the film was its unsuccessful attempt to take out the American’s oil tankers. In hindsight, a fatal mistake that could have allowed the Japanese to take over the Pacific including that of Hawaii but instead gave the Americans a chance to recover and re-mobilize, setting the stage for future battles to come.

The film is full of numerous well-known stars including Woody Harrelson, Dennis Quaid and Aaron Eckhart but the one that commands the most attention is the brash, and fearless naval pilot Dick Best (Ed Skrein).

It’s through his wings that we get the best glimpse into naval mindset and the high stakes battles, which were done to great dramatic effect and action. And despite the viewer knowing the final outcome to this story we don’t know the outcomes of our real life heroes that we’re following which is in doubt because the American’s have a huge problem on their hands.

The American’s have lost six of its eight aircraft carriers in the Pearl Harbor attack along with unsuccessful follow up battles to the Japanese who still have six remaining carriers sailing the pacific.  If this movie tells you anything it’s that you need aircraft carriers to wage and win wars on the seas.  The fate of the American’s becomes dire.

An attack is imminent but where? Washington believes it to be in the Marshal Islands but Layton believes otherwise. He believes the Japanese will throw their entire naval attack at an American military island instillation…. Midway. And if he’s right the American’s will have its lone advantage, a surprise attack, and potentially the opportunity to change the tides of war.

It’s an entertaining film and Emerich did a good job at establishing both sides for the most part as honorary soldiers doing a duty, rather than good vs. evil (war is always messy). The US was already a superpower and at the time and the Japanese Empire was expanding, seeing its opportunity to grab what they believed to be it’s next step in its world hierarchy.

History is written by the winners, however, Midway is a good reminder that not all wars are simply won or lost but come to that way through a series of sacrifice and effort with often forgotten battles that changed the fate of the world as we know it today.