Review | Midway film review: Roland Emmerich war drama is strangely pedestrian – if only John Ford were still alive to direct it
- The Day After Tomorrow director has a cast featuring Dennis Quaid, Woody Harrelson, the Jonas Brothers’ Nick Jonas, and Ed Skrein, yet film lacks emotional pull
- The story of the World War II Battle of Midway, its focus is on the Americans rather than the Japanese, with the CGI-heavy action scenes impressive
2.5/5 stars
Once upon a time, Hollywood made films such as The Longest Day and The Dirty Dozen, all-star war movies that reeked of patriotism and testosterone. Roland Emmerich, the German director behind Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow, tries something similar in Midway.
Set during World War II, the story takes place largely in 1942, when US forces fought the Japanese military for control of the Midway Islands in the Pacific Ocean as America responded to Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbour.
The difference here is that Emmerich’s movie is a blockbuster made outside the studio system; Chinese investors contributed a quarter of the US$100 million budget.
Still, it’s a surprise that Hollywood missed a chance to bang the drum for the all-conquering American heroes who risked their lives taking to the skies in an attempt to destroy the Imperial Japanese Navy.
While there is a tribute at the end of the film to the Americans and Japanese who fought there – and Midway does at least offer the latter the dignity of speaking their own language, which is subtitled – the focus is on the Yanks.