PG Score: 7/10
Midway was a solid war flick backed by an all-star cast. It features some truly explosive action sequences and, more specifically, some thrilling dogfights. The set pieces here are the standout and highlight what Director Roland Emmerich does best. These large-scale scenes of chaos and destruction are his trademark and this movie features plenty. Revolving around the real life World War II Battle of Midway, the movie boasts a large ensemble cast featuring the likes of Ed Skrein, Patrick Wilson, Woody Harrelson, Nick Jonas, Luke Evans, Dennis Quaid, Aaron Eckhart, and more. Granted, the focus is really only on a few of them, but everyone does a good job with the screen time they have. The battles are very strong overall. The dogfights are the highlight, though there aren’t as many there are plane-on-carrier action scenes. The few that do occur are truly exhilarating, however. At times, I felt as though I was really in the cockpit. I was pleasantly surprised to see such a focus on the Japanese perspective. It’s refreshing to see a movie that spends significant time showing the other side of the equation. It enhanced my appreciation for the film as a whole.
Unfortunately, a lot of the writing is rather drab and quite cheesy. There’s not a ton of downtime, but the majority of it is chock full of some questionable dialogue. It really had me itching for them to just get to the next battle.
Midway survives on its strong naval and aerial battles. It suffers from some lackluster writing but, thankfully, the action picks up the slack. This is a good movie to experience in the theater and I do recommend it to anyone who appreciates war flicks and impressive aerial action spectacles.