Midway (2019) is a re-telling of the famous World War 2 War Battle between Japan and the U.S. Navel forces. This story has been told on film before, most famously in 1976 with Charlton Heston, Henry Fonda, James Coburn, Glenn Ford, Ed Nelson, Hal Holbrook, Toshiro Mifune, Robert Mitchum, Cliff Robertson, Robert Wagner, James Shigeta, Pat Morita, John Fujioka, Robert Ito and Christina Kokubo.
This version is retold with a new cast consisting of Ed Skrein, Patrick Wilson, Luke Evans, Aaron Eckhart, Nick Jonas, Mandy Moore, Dennis Quaid, Tadanobu Asano, and Woody Harrelson.
The Good- More of the war is coverd in the 2019 version than the original with significant coverage of the Pearl harbor attack by the Japanese, the Dootlittle Tokyo Bombing, and the Midway Battle itself. it is a bold attempt to cover a lot of ground. The visuals of the movie are by far, it's highlight. New technology puts you right in the cockpit and on the deck of the ships involved. It is a spectacle for the eyes and tells most of the story...
The Bad- The acting- not a single convincing performance. The dialogue is dated, and sounds like the most stilted contrived speeches.. It's like the movie was made in 2018...but the dialogue was written in 1955. It's so bad it actually distracts from the film realism and story. It would have been a better movie had they just used all the great imagery and had Sam Elliot narrate it.
The Recommendation- Tough call here...but I am going to recommend to see it. The visuals make it worth the effort.
Now playing at the Angelika Theater in CMR and The Reading Cinemas in Murrieta.