MIDWAY - the movie

[captain1ma]

there should be a trailer for hitech creations at the beginning of that movie!!

[Bruv119]

 

    

 

[CptTrips]

I saw it this morning.
It was OK.  Not fantastic, but OK. 

Not Saving Private Ryan level, but better than yet another comic book super hero movie. 

[amp]

   

 

  F.P.H. Bruv119

[TeeArr]

I agree with Vraciu.  "Shattered Sword" is a fantastic book, and shows, with Japanese documentation how the Kido Butai really failed at Midway. 
Although I haven't seen the Movie itself, I have seen the extended trailer.  These are my impressions:
The Pearl Harbor Attack:  The Japanese Zeros weren't green.  Not a single one of them.  With a major portion of the Aircraft fighting and flying scenes done with CGI, they could have done better.  Attention to detail.  Remember this as I will say "see above" several times.   The Doolittle Raid scenes are beautiful.  The one view of the B-25 from the bow taking off is fantastic, as is seeing 16 B-25s sitting on the Deck of the Hornet CV-8.  Too bad they are B-25Js (See above).  The Midway attack by Torpedo 8 is cool.  You get to see TBD-1 Devestators in flight (for a short time anyhow), but the TBD-1s never carried a pair of 500 pound bombs on it's wings...especially not while carrying a torpedo. (See above).  There are several people who are depicted from real life; Dick Best, Wade McCluskey, George Gay, Jimmy Doolittle, and Nimitz to name a few.  There were also plenty of people who were important to the telling of the battle who were not depicted, and probably should have been: Specifically; Stanhope Ring, Mark Mitscher, and John Waldron.
I do plan on seeing the film, but I will watch it for story content and try to ignore the CGI mistakes.

[bozon]

"Gonna hit the brakes [in my SBD], he'll fly right by."


 

SBD is so slow that if you hit the breaks it starts to fly backwards.

[Vraciu]

SBD is so slow that if you hit the breaks it starts to fly backwards.

 

[Shuffler]

SBD is so slow that if you hit the breaks it starts to fly backwards.

DOH!!!!   

[Vraciu]

I agree with Vraciu.  "Shattered Sword" is a fantastic book, and shows, with Japanese documentation how the Kido Butai really failed at Midway. 
Although I haven't seen the Movie itself, I have seen the extended trailer.  These are my impressions:
The Pearl Harbor Attack:  The Japanese Zeros weren't green.  Not a single one of them.  With a major portion of the Aircraft fighting and flying scenes done with CGI, they could have done better.  Attention to detail.  Remember this as I will say "see above" several times.   The Doolittle Raid scenes are beautiful.  The one view of the B-25 from the bow taking off is fantastic, as is seeing 16 B-25s sitting on the Deck of the Hornet CV-8.  Too bad they are B-25Js (See above).  The Midway attack by Torpedo 8 is cool.  You get to see TBD-1 Devestators in flight (for a short time anyhow), but the TBD-1s never carried a pair of 500 pound bombs on it's wings...especially not while carrying a torpedo. (See above).  There are several people who are depicted from real life; Dick Best, Wade McCluskey, George Gay, Jimmy Doolittle, and Nimitz to name a few.  There were also plenty of people who were important to the telling of the battle who were not depicted, and probably should have been: Specifically; Stanhope Ring, Mark Mitscher, and John Waldron.
I do plan on seeing the film, but I will watch it for story content and try to ignore the CGI mistakes.

 

Yeah, how you can tell the story of this battle without covering Torpedo 8 is beyond me.

There was also a rather gallant Japanese fighter pilot mentioned in SHATTERED SWORD who deserves attention in telling this tale.   

Too bad on both counts.

[Saxman]

Yeah, how you can tell the story of this battle without covering Torpedo 8 is beyond me.

There was also a rather gallant Japanese fighter pilot mentioned in SHATTERED SWORD who deserves attention in telling this tale.   

Too bad on both counts.

The story was primarily focused on Dick Best (who was himself omitted from the 1976 Midway) and Bombing Six, so some things simply had to end up on the cutting room floor in a 2 hour movie (IE, not showing any of the fighters even though McCluskey was CO of Fighting Six before his promotion to CAG). I already said in my review this could have benefited tremendously from being a miniseries rather than a film because of just how much they were trying to cover.

[TeeArr]

They did cover Torpedo 8, after a fashion by covering George Gay...the sole survivor from the TBDs on the Hornet.  Perhaps they spent too much time covering the battles leading up to Midway, that could have been used to round out the story of the Battle.  There is a book "A Dauntless Victory"  which concentrates on how the SBD Squadrons were the real heroes of the battle...I didn't make it past two chapters of this self aggrandizing container of fewmets and have not picked it up again.  Two other books however are fantastic and worth the time: "The Battle of Midway" by Symonds, and "A Dawn Like Thunder" by Mrazek, which covers the history of Torpedo 8 Before and after Midway.

I hope this helps.

[Vraciu]

The story was primarily focused on Dick Best (who was himself omitted from the 1976 Midway) and Bombing Six, so some things simply had to end up on the cutting room floor in a 2 hour movie (IE, not showing any of the fighters even though McCluskey was CO of Fighting Six before his promotion to CAG). I already said in my review this could have benefited tremendously from being a miniseries rather than a film because of just how much they were trying to cover.

Cut out all the other stuff and focus on Midway.   This is where the 1976 film was also superior. 

This film is obviously scatterbrained.    Too diversified to find an anchor. 

[captain1ma]

its about entertainment. accuracy yes, but mostly entertainment. were you entertained?

[Max]

[Mister Fork]

Watched that on Amazon Prime with my boy on Sunday. Still a great movie!

The new Midway movie, however, I'll wait for it to come out on Netflix/Prime/Whateverstreamingservice.