CaptDave
Posts: 659
Joined: 6/21/2002 From: Federal Way, WA Status: offline
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Went to see the movie this morning (early bird rate of $7.50, compared to $10.50 normal price -- didn't think the latter would be worth it based on other reviews, and I was right). Here's the review I posted elsewhere. Keep in mind that I don't know as much about this battle as I do some others, except in general terms, and I've always been much more interested in submarines rather than war aircraft, so I don't even address some of the technicalities that mean so much to so many in this forum. ----- Movie Review: Midway Being the World War II geek that I am, I went to see the new Midway movie this morning. Here are my impressions. The story line was good. In an all-too-rare occurrence, historical facts were pretty reasonably accurate. There has to be some dramatization, of course, but it wasn't distracting. Similarly, the underlying love story(ies) didn't distract from the rest of the film, as I understand they did in what the wargaming community calls The Movie That Shall Not Be Named (based on the events of 12/7/41). On the other hand, I don't think it added anything, either. The dialog was a bit insipid and anachronistic quite a bit of the time. Several phrases were used that hadn't come into the lexicon by that time, and other parts were just plain lame. Those of you familiar with "Singing in the Rain" might recall, as I did, the line after the last premier -- "did somebody actually get paid to write that dialogue?". Some reviews have said the director has never met a special effect he didn't like. Unfortunately, in this movie I met a *lot* of special effects that I didn't like. The air battle scenes were completely laughable and unrealistic. At least there weren't any recycled stock films of B-17s making gear-up landings, as in the 1976 movie of the same name. The one thing I'm not sure about is how well the various characters were portrayed -- that is, I don't know whether they were in character for the real person. I suspect they were portrayed within reason, but have no real basis for comparison. This was no "Tora! Tora! Tora!", my standard for purportedly historic war films, but then few are. I'd give it 7 of 10 stars; worth seeing if you can get an early bird price, personal choice at normal price, and not worth paying any premium whatsoever.
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