I, like many people, assumed this was going to be a typical Roland Emmerich (RE) film...a lot of eye candy where things blow up real good, but not much else (although I have to admit, Independence Day and The Patriot are both decent movies). I have rarely been so wrong...at least when it comes to a film. For whatever reason, with Midway, RE went to painstaking lengths to make sure he portrayed a vast amount of authenticity, and audiences are the better for it. Don't get me wrong. There are a few scenes where RE utilizes his creative licensing, but far less than expected. And yes, there is an abundance of CGI...too much in my opinion. But because I was so invested in the story and the characters, it really didn't matter. I have to wonder about many of the negative reviews for this film. Did those who wrote them not know their World War II history? Because some of them seem to think that this is mostly dramatized. Well, it isn't. Even some of the scenes that definitely feel unrealistic actually happened. For example, when one of the characters, seemingly out of pure instinct, mans a gun on a stationary fighter plane parked on a carrier to shoot down an enemy plane...a plane that was about to crash into said carrier, this is something that actually happened. As did the character's immediate promotion. And there are other examples of that kind of accuracy found throughout the film. So I was quite surprised to see multiple reviews complaining about inaccuracies. That is just not the truth. Midway is a very good, solidly made film, and, in my opinion RE's best.
