"Anybody seen "Midway" yet?" Topic

Wondering if any of you have seen the new "Midway" movie yet, before I spend the price of admission.

Or should I just watch Tora, Tora, Tora and then Charlton Heston's Midway again?

Heading out in a couple of hours

I've heard it makes "Pearl Harbor" look like "Tora! Tora! Tora!", so…

Been warned many aircraft have got some details wrong

I went with a group of wargamers. They all enjoyed it. I was annoyed by some things but I won't spoil it. Overall well worth the price. What they got right outweighs the wrong.

@21eRegt:

What they got right outweighs the wrong.

That's actually quite the endorsement for a war movie … especially if it's by Emmerich.

I'll watch it based on that!

My standard advice to all TMPers is to avoid all movies.
There's bound to be some detail wrong, and it appears that plotting, direction and acting is irrelevant on this site.

Come on, who doesn't watch Battle of the Bulge with that all star cast just to hate it?

My standard advice to all TMPers is to avoid all movies.

My standard advice to all TMPers is to see all historical movies and thus lessen the risk of running out of things to bitch about.

Duncan

I thought it was just awesome

I loved it, will see it again and buy the DVD. Setting up a "never were " carrier battle now.

It's a solid WWII action movie, plain and simple. No attempt at a romantic subplot or anything emotional like 'Pearl Harbor' to cater to the wives and girlfriends. It's a movie that would make a giddy 10 year old boy grab his WWII airplane model and run out of the house waving it around flying.

The history isn't deep but I'm not "buff" enough to nitpick on any inaccuracies. "Realism" seems okay. No prop planes zipping around like jets in 'Fly Boys.' If you want to see Top Gun machismo with lots of CG-heavy aerial derring-do with SBD Dauntlesses and TBF Avengers you'll love this WWII B-movie.

OTOH if you're more into character or story-driven movies than purely action-driven ones, then you may not enjoy it as much.

It was fine, but not at all that great. The movie story which drives the action was pretty bad. So much actual Midway story could have been told, but they chose to do a brief history and highlights of the prewar and opening months instead of a solid movie of the battle. Some of the movie's choice of scenes to include in the movie seemed strange to me. I will not speak to specific things as we don't want to do spoilers here. I will say that I did not like that they dedicated the film to both the American and Japanese who fought in the battle. Some of that might just be bias I suppose, but I will note that a few scenes from the movie would make that seem like an odd dedication to make. Agree or not it would seem that the director couldn't exactly find what he wanted to say here. Check out this review, which I think pretty much hits the mark, though for some it might go a bit far if you just enjoy war movies. Please be aware that it does include a few things you might not want to know if you have not yet seen the movie.
link

Lets see how much money it makes This is what will determine if similar movies are made.

A $17.5 USD million opening. We'll see how it does in the long term.

Went to MilleniumCon this weekend, got home wife says she got us tickets to go tonight. Life is good.

My standard advice to all TMPers is to avoid all movies.

My standard advice to all TMPers is to see all historical movies and thus lessen the risk of running out of things to bitch about.

Cage match!

It's a solid WWII action movie, plain and simple. No attempt at a romantic subplot or anything emotional like 'Pearl Harbor' to cater to the wives and girlfriends. It's a movie that would make a giddy 10 year old boy grab his WWII airplane model and run out of the house waving it around flying.

Perfect. This is exactly what I'm in the mood for. I'm in the middle of painting all the aircraft for it, the timing couldn't be better.

- Ix

Just saw it with my wife, who hates war movies.

She liked it a lot, for the characters. I thought it was a solid movie that I'd see again. The weird CGI in the trailers were either cleaned up, or just looked different on the big screen. It all looked great.

All things considered, it was a really enjoyable movie.

It was OK --however the very last credit turned me off the movie for ever and ever !!

Regards
Russ Dunaway

I will say that I did not like that they dedicated the film to both the American and Japanese who fought in the battle.

Believe it or not China financed 25 percent of this movie because Roland Emmerich had a lot of trouble securing the $100 USD million he needed to make this war epic.

The movie is very forgiving of the Japanese with the following dedication, and I'm surprised the Chinese went along with it:

"This film is dedicated to the American and Japanese sailors who fought at Midway. The sea remembers its own."

But with the passage of time the atrocities perpetrated by the Japanese have less impact if not entirely forgotten. Japan today embodies America's liberal democratic ideals much more than China's authoritarian regime, after all. Not to mention Japan poses no threat to America, unlike the Chinese who plan to supplant the US as the world's number one superpower by 2050.

Yes, this is the Japan of today and this is a good thing. However, the movie was about the Japan of yesteryear?

Russ Dunaway

I respect what you are saying Russ, but I disagree. I think the final dedication is fitting in the present. The Japanese Empire was atrocious and evil, but the vast majority of soldiers, sailors and airmen were simply doing their duty, and their courage and sacrifice was noteworthy.

I am guessing some people here have never seen "Tora Tora Tora"
It was filmed by an American film company and in part by a Japanese film company. Some of you should never see "Letters from Iwo Jima".

While I realize the movie is titled "Midway", since it covers from PH to Midway, including the Doolittle Raid, it would have been appropriate if the dedication had also mentioned the Chinese people – military and especially civilian – who gave their lives assisting the Doolittle raiders.

Yes I saw it a couple of days ago. I loved it. It was especially nice to see Sam Houston and William B. Travis together in a WW2 film.

Even though there have been many WW2 movies we needed this one. I would love to see a film about Kursk and Barbarossa some day.

Saw the movie today. Frankly, I thought the original 1970's movie was better, even with the horrible use of real footage at the end of that movie – Heston's/Matt Garth's "SBD" crash actually being that of an F9F Panther JET. I am definitely glad I went to the cheaper "early bird" showing.

Turns out there is a reference to all the Chinese people who gave their lives assisting the Doolittle raiders.

The Japanese killed a quarter million Chinese in retaliation for a few among them who may have aided Doolitle and his airmen after their raid over Tokyo. Yeah, the least they could do is to acknowledge the sacrifice.

I saw it yesterday. Writing was terrible and at times "corny." The acting was stiff. The inclusion of nearly 40 minutes of Pearl Harbor was too much. Certainly ten minutes would have sufficed. The Doolittle raid subplot was unnecessary--simply mentioning the raid then showing its effects would have been better. I rate it a 5/10. Maybe worth watching on the TV on a rainy or snowy Sunday afternoon while painting miniatures of course (don't want it to be a total waste of time ;-))

Saw it at the last showing and overall I liked it a bunch. I'm a big fan of the 1975 version and thought they did a good job. No cornball "Titanic" style romance. They covered the history well and I wish they would have skipped the Pearl Harbor attack and focused more on the nuts and bolts of Coral Sea and Midway. I must also applaud them for adding in a lot of the background stories like John Ford at Midway. I'm glad I ngot to see it in the theater.