POSITIVES…
A fairly accurate narrative of the Pacific War during World War II. History buffs should appreciate that.
The visuals of the battles are a wonder to look at. Seeing planes flying through a barrage of artillery fire is quite the sight.
Ensemble cast are generally solid, with highlights by Ed Skrein, Luke Evans, Patrick Wilson, Keean Johnson, and Dennis Quaid.
I admire the fact that the story doesn’t just show the war through the point of view of the Americans, but also from the perspective of the Japanese.
Thematically all about heroism and sacrifice. We can all get behind that.
NEGATIVES…
I really would rather watch a documentary than this again, because the screenplay just doesn’t cut it for a movie.
If anything else, the film-makers should have just considered making this into a TV series about the Pacific War, like HBO’s “The Pacific.”
It’s like the movie took out the dramatized visual segments from a documentary series about the Pacific War, and then just lazily stitched them together to form a full length movie.
Either that, or this felt like an abbreviated version of a full TV series, but condensed into a movie time length. We shouldn’t settle for that.
The plot just jumps from one place to another, as if it’s just checking off boxes about the series of events. Constantly feels like it’s missing entire sections or story beats, in between the scenes that we actually do get to see.
Due to how the plot narrative is laid out, the tone is all over the place. It shouldn’t transition a dramatic tense battle, and then immediately follow it up with a casual scene involving a party.
Speaking of the battles. Way too short for my taste. It gets going, and then it’s suddenly done.
Besides a handful of the main characters, the rest of the cast are hardly fleshed out at all, despite the fact that we are clearly supposed to care about them when they are put in dramatic situations.
I also found a recurring manipulative theme involving the fact that everybody else but our highlighted characters are incompetent. Pandering to the audience much?
Did this have Mandy Moore play Ann Best, just because the movie needed to have a female character? Talk about filling out check boxes.
Despite the fact that this is based on real life, the movie itself still can’t help but feel derivative, that’s filled with plot cliches, and plot holes.
Should be pointed out that there are still some liberties taken about the characters and the events, so History buffs might complain of it not being 100% accurate.
P.S….
loveditenjoyeditlikedititsokay IT’S MEH itsterrible
