Midway – Review

Midway

Directed by: Roland Emmerich

Runtime: 138 minutes

Midway, the newest film from director Roland Emmerich is an American war film focusing on the famous World War II-era Battle of Midway conducted in the aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. To coincide with the Veterans Day national holiday in the US, Midway received an early November release in 2019 and, in a strange act of studio time dilation, the film’s Australian release date is scheduled for next week—a full two months after its premiere in the unceremonious dumping ground that is the month of January. Which means that this review is now somewhat of an informal retrospective, given that the press screening for the film took place in a different decade and reviews were embargoed until the following year. So, if you’re reading this, you may have already come across international reviews for the film or, potentially, already watched it (through no-doubt nefarious means). Such is the way of world in the Year of Our Lord 2020. Now, weird timing aside, it’s also necessary for me to present two disclaimers upfront before we move into the review proper.

First, I have a big soft spot for Emmerich as director and (dare I say it) auteur. Yes, his films are—on the whole—inherently stupid, functioning as an assemblage of aged tropes and big, loud, obnoxious blockbuster fare. That said, I’m about it and have been ever since I saw Stargate (1994) as a wide-eyed child obsessed with inventive science-fiction. Films like Independence Day (1996) and Godzilla (1998) have become cultural touchstones for a variety of reasons, while his epic streak of outrageous disaster films—The Day After Tomorrow (2004), 2012 (2009) and White House Down (2013)—have become iconic in their own right. For me, when Emmerich is in complete control of the material as writer, director and producer, the result is at least entertaining despite any of the predictable and derivative hang-ups (although, the less said about that abysmal Independence Day sequel, the better). And second, it’s impossible to evaluate Midway without acknowledging its debt to Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbour (2001). Not only in terms of overlap in historical period and subject matter, but also the subliminal juxtaposition that exists through thematic tone, dialogue and cinematography. While I enjoyed Pearl Harbour as a teenager, when my film-centric interests typically tapped out at slo-mo, explosions and cool effects shots, my feelings on the film have soured somewhat as an adult. While it remains a thoroughly unlikeable film on many levels, at least it’s engaging in terms of the sheer, unadulterated Bay-hem on display.

However, the same cannot be said about Emmerich’s latest venture. Midway is not a good film. Not only is it weighed down by awful, ham-fisted dialogue and trite storytelling, it also looks cheap and bland, rendering one of the most pivotal air-naval battles of the twentieth century into an expository mess of lifeless CGI that’s utterly devoid of any stakes, thrills or genuine narrative tension.

Also, let’s talk about characterisation for a minute. Most of the characters we’re introduced to throughout Midway are based on real people, and the story itself (written by Wes Tooke) is based on historical accounts of the battle and the people involved. For influential figures such as Admirals Isoroku Yamamoto, Chester W. Nimitz and Lieutenant Commander Edwin T. Layton, they benefit from having seasoned actors like Etsushi Toyokawa, Woody Harrelson and Patrick Wilson respectively imbuing their portrayals with nuance, empathy and a sense of grim realism. In contrast, the film’s central protagonists appear on screen as literal caricatures of the brave service people they’re supposed to be representing, with performances so hollow and two-dimensional that they’d disappear altogether if you looked at them sidewise. Ed Skrein and Luke Evans are more than capable actors in their own right, but they’re woefully miscast here with nothing to go off except masculine bravado, boot camp posturing and telegraphed story beats—not to mention a pair of extremely unconvincing American accents.

In the supporting cast, Dennis Quaid shows up as Vice Admiral William “Bull” Halsey, for the express purpose of being the ‘cranky old dude’ before he gets sidelined with the shingles (no, seriously). Elsewhere, Nick Jonas makes an appearance as a wise-cracking, Italian-American aviation mate with possibly the worst on-screen moustache since Henry Cavill’s CGI debacle in Justice League (2017). Only Mandy Moore manages to churn out a relatable performance that’s recognisably human in any way, as the caring and distraught Anne Best, wife of Skrein’s hot-headed, gum-chewing pilot Dick Best.

Thematically, Midway is a film about Americans at war and with that focus comes the inevitable propagandising and chest-beating of American exceptionalism. As French film director Francois Truffaut once famously asserted, war films by their very nature are all pro-war films, because “to show something is to ennoble it.” In this sense, details surrounding the production of Midway shed some light on the film’s ideological slant and attempts at historical revisionism.

As detailed by The Hollywood Reporter, Emmerich had trouble financing the project due to a potentially costly budget exceeding $100 million, and the film only received the green light after securing $76 million from individuals and an additional $24 million from Chinese investors, namely the RuYi Media group. This choice makes some sense, considering the significance of the Chinese market in terms of global audience; however, this also results in the film’s events skewing towards a very positive and overwrought focus on the involvement of Chinese nationals in the narrative and reduces most of the Japanese characters to the roles of cartoonish villains. Not to mention several historical inaccuracies with the battle itself, including the absence of crucial figures and a baffling choice to restage the deaths of two minor characters, which completely undercuts the sacrifice and memory of the real service people their roles are based on.

Ultimately, Midway is a disappointment on both the level of interesting cinema and as a contribution to Emmerich’s evolving filmography. With listless CGI backgrounds and robotic, painful dialogue, the film executes its leaden script with all the style and panache of a faulty torpedo, sinking and sinking before striking its target with a lack of grace and a dull thud.