Roland Emmerich’s version of the second world war Pacific battle is a drearily earnest monument to CGI mayhem
Never in the history of war movies have so few thrills been delivered by so much mayhem and destruction. The attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor in 1941 and the battle of Midway six months later have been brought to the screen with boredom-inspiring spectacle by Roland Emmerich. The film is a passion project and comes with a guarantee that its historical events are accurate. (This is the director who sent
aliens to invade Earth in Independence Day and armed the president with a rocket launcher in
White House Down).
But now Emmerich is getting serious, carving a great monument of a movie, a cinematic statue to the bravery of the young men who sacrificed their lives in the Pacific. And like watching a statue for two-and-a-half hours, there’s nothing to do but sit back and yawn.