Pearl Harbor (2001) Dir: Michael Bay
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This is one of those films that I felt like I should watch at least once, even if I ended up not liking it. Michael Bay is not my kind of director, but I know he can at least do explosions well. Regardless, I took the plunge, with hopes for something good.
I liked the opening, it was fun. However, the film dipped in quality a whole lot across the board from there onwards. It was badly written, corny and overly dramatic. It felt like a poorly executed World War Two version of the Titanic film. Plus, it was three hours long. It seriously did not need to be that long.
The actual attack on Pearl Harbour was pretty well shot. It was a great action sequence. Though dated, the CGI wasn't that bad, and the physical effects, including Bay's trademark explosions, looked phenomenal. It's just a shame it was surrounded by a crumby story.
The historical inaccuracies were both prevalent and irritating. To say that the film was heavily fictionalised, even just the attack, would be putting it lightly. I realise not everyone will care as much as I did watching this, but it definitely irked me a fair bit.
Ben Affleck gave the best of a mediocre set of performances. I found him at least somewhat convincing. He, along with the rest of the cast, suffered at the hands of the screenplay, but Affleck at least had the presence to play it off a bit.
I wasn't such a fan of Josh Hartnett's acting though. Everything he did felt a little forced, a little hollow. It felt like he was overdoing it a lot, especially during the more drama-based scenes.
I liked Kate Beckinsale in the early scenes, but she lost me more and more as the film progressed. In the end, similarly to Hartnett, I felt that her performance was pretty lacking. I wouldn't go so far as to call her bad, but I was definitely disappointed.
Of the remaining cast, the most notable, if not necessarily impressive, performances came from Cuba Gooding Jr, Alec Baldwin, Ewen Bremner, Jon Voight, Jaime King, Tom Sizemore, Jennifer Garner and Dan Aykroyd.
Overall, this was a mediocre romance film with a wildly good action sequence jammed into the middle of it. It felt like Bay couldn't decide if he wanted to make a film about a love triangle or a hugely significant historical event. Honestly, I got whiplash from some of the jumps between themes and storylines.
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