MIDWAY : Thursday 30th January 2020.

I saw the M Rated 'MIDWAY' on its Australian opening night in a movie theatre that was somewhat surprisingly devoid of paying customers. This is a remake of the 1976 film of the same name which charts the Battle of Midway following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. Directed and Co-Produced by that master of disaster Roland Emmerich whose previous screen outings take in the likes of 'Independence Day', 'Godzilla', 'The Day After Tomorrow', '10,000BC', '2012', 'White House Down', and 'Independence Day : Resurgence' most recently. The film has been a passion project of Emmerich's since the mid-'90's, but he had trouble getting the necessary financial backing for the film before finally fund raising most of the budget of US100M and officially announcing it in 2017. With that sort of budget, this film is one of the most costly independent films of all time. Released in the US in early November last year, the film has so far taken US$123M at the Box Office and has received generally mixed or average Reviews so far.

On 7th December 1941, Japanese forces launch a devastating attack on Pearl Harbour, the U.S. naval base in Hawaii, so catapulting the US into WWII. In the days immediately following the attack Admiral Chester Nimitz (Woody Harrelson) is given command of the severely fractured US Pacific Naval Fleet. He speaks with Lieutenant Colonel Edwin T. Layton (Patrick Wilson) - an intelligence officer of the US Pacific Fleet, about his failure to convince Washington of the impending Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, but to stick to his guns when next he needs to confront Washington over a suspected enemy attack.

On 18th April 1942, Lieutenant Colonel James Dolittle (Aaron Eckhart) led an air raid on the Japanese capital of Tokyo and other places of strategic interest on Honshu Island. It was the first air strike on the Japanese archipelago, and showed that the Japanese mainland was vulnerable to an American air attack while serving as retaliation for the attack on Pearl Harbour. Sixteen B-25B Mitchell medium bomber aircraft take off from the USS Aircraft Carrier 'Hornet' with fifteen aircraft reaching China but all crashed, including Dolittle's while the 16th landed at Vladivostok in the Soviet Union. As a result the Japanese turn their focus on the Coral Sea in a battle fought from 4th to 8th May 1942, between the Imperial Japanese Navy and naval and air forces from the United States and Australia.

In the meantime Commander Joseph Rochefort (Brennan Brown) the Chief Cryptologist of the US Pacific Fleet Radio Unit intercept messages with a Japanese location noted by the call sign 'AF'. Layton speaks with Nimitz, who advises him that Washington believes that 'AF' is a target in the Aleutian Islands. Layton disagrees, believing the intended target to be Midway Atoll. Nimitz instructs the team to find a way to definitively prove that 'AF' is in fact Midway. Needless to say, in time, Rochefort and Layton are able to prove that Midway is the target. In preparation for an ambush of the Japanese fleet, Nimitz orders carriers 'Hornet' and 'Enterprise' to be recalled from the Coral Sea operations and demands that the damaged 'Yorktown' be made ready for combat operations within 72 hours. Attacked by Japanese dive-bombers in the Coral Sea, the 'Yorktown' sustained damage from a bomb which penetrated the flight deck and exploded below decks, killing or seriously injuring 66 men. The bomb also damaged her superheater boilers, rendering them inoperable . . . but only for 72 hours!

On 4th June the Japanese launch an air attack against Midway. Early attempts by US land based aircraft to strike at the Japanese fleet carriers fail. After a downed B-26 narrowly misses striking a carrier's bridge, the Japanese crew are stunned, believing the aircraft was attempting a suicide run, although Admiral Chuichi Nagumo (Jun Kunimura) nervously infers that the plane was most likely out of control due to battle damage. 'Nautilus', a US submarine, successfully locates and attacks an enemy carrier but the torpedo narrowly misses its target. The destroyer 'Arashi' keeps the submarine pinned down with depth charges so the carriers can escape. Meanwhile, US carrier planes are launched in an effort to destroy the Japanese carriers. After reaching the last known location of the Japanese fleet the US forces discover that the carriers have moved. Upon sighting the 'Arashi', the Lieutenant Commander of the Air Group of the 'Enterprise', Wade McClusky (Luke Evans), correctly infers the Japanese destroyer is rushing back to join the main Japanese fleet and leads his planes to follow its course and attack.

As Nagumo's personnel switch out their aircraft ordnance for an anti-ship attack, US carrier-based planes appear suddenly. 'Enterprise' squadron Commanders McClusky and Richard Best (Ed Skrein) successfully lead their planes through the anti-aircraft fire and destroy the Japanese carriers 'Kaga' and 'Akagi', and squadrons from the 'Yorktown' destroy the 'Soryu'. Attempting to salvage the battle, 'Hiryu' commanded by Tamon Yamaguchi (Tadanobu Asano) attempts to rally the remaining Japanese aircraft for an assault against the US carriers. Locating 'Yorktown', the Japanese bomb and disable the carrier scoring three direct hits.

Upon returning to the 'Enterprise', Best learns that half of his squadron is either missing in action or destroyed. Informed that there is a surviving Japanese carrier, Best rallies what pilots he can and sets off to attack the 'Hiryu'. Japanese anti-aircraft fire fails to stop the attack, but Best in his typical no fear gung-ho do or die dive bombing raids scores a critical hit that destroys the 'Hiryu'. 

Rear Admiral Raymond Spruance (Jake Weber), informed of the destruction of the last Japanese carrier, decides to withdraw for the night rather than test his luck. Informed of the loss of his carriers in battle, Admiral Yamamoto (Etsushi Toyokawa) orders his fleet to withdraw from the battle rather than risk his battleships without sufficient air cover, effectively bringing the Battle of Midway to a conclusion. Upon returning home in a wheelchair Best is reunited with his wife Anne (Mandy Moore). He informs her that he inhaled a large dose of caustic soda into his lungs instead of oxygen to aid with high altitude flying, and as a result he will never fly again. 

The closing credits reveal what became of those US wartime heroes depicted in the film, as well as the Japanese reprisals following the battle. Dennis Quaid also stars as Vice Admiral William Halsey the Commander of Carrier Division Two aboard his flagship carrier 'Enterprise'. Halsey led a series of hit-and-run raids against the Japanese, striking the Gilbert and Marshall islands in February, Wake Island in March, and carrying out the Doolittle Raid in April 1942. Halsey returned to Pearl Harbour from his last raid on 26th May 1942, in poor health due to an extremely serious bout of Shingles brought about by stressful conditions at hand, and as such missed out on the Battle for Midway, which he later described as his greatest disappointment.

In remaking 'Midway' Director Roland Emmerich here takes a valuable lesson in history that he presumably made for a whole new audience either unfamiliar with that 1976 film, or indeed the decisive battle in the Pacific, or both, and on that basis I guess the story had to be told, again! And whilst the CGI effects are commendable, and the action set pieces well executed, what we have here boils down to Uncle Sam beating his chest once again and spraying a can of whoop ass all over the cookie cutter Japanese. The cast are all largely one dimensional as is the heavily cliched dialogue, and I felt the film was bereft of any emotional weight or the chance to get really invested in the characters. There is very little by way of suspense or tension here either, and you just know that in Ed Skrein's Dick Best flying ace, that he's going to win the day and get back to his girl, shaken but not stirred! Ultimately this is a WWII drama set in the 1940's, with the look and feel of a 1970's war time epic, boxed up with all the CGI of 2020, and on that basis the film delivers, but left me feeling a little underwhelmed.

'Midway' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard out of a potential five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-