Often known as the turning point of the war in the Pacific theater, the Battle of Midway is accurately and thrillingly captured in the 2019 movie Midway. The movie not only captures the battle and the build-up to the battle through the use of fantastic CGI and multiple perspectives but also through movie scenes that are historically accurate which allow the viewer to understand the logistics, planning, and all-around morale that lead up to this integral World War II battle.
The movie contains some widely known actors such as Nick Jonas who stars as Bruno Gaido, who serves as a more secondary character in the movie, but is nonetheless a key member of the success of the battle. The main character who we follow around Richard Best (Ed Skrein) is a sailor in the Navy who is on a warship docked in Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attack. During the attack, he loses a close friend of his which arguably empowers him to avenge his fallen friend later on in the movie. We also learn how crippled the US Navy in the Pacific truly was after the attack, with just a few warships left to guard the vital American aircraft carriers and the with the remaining sailors being heavily demoralized. The main plot arises when the Americans suspect that the Japanese are planning something big and that the need to deal the Japanese a crippling defeat is vital, and when American code breakers catch wind of the possible location of the feared Japanese pacific carrier group, the stage is set for the most important naval battle of WWII only this time, the Americans have the element of surprise on their side.
The movie itself has many positives and negatives attached to it. One of the positives of the movie is that it’s historically accurate as historians from the Department of Defense and the Heritage Command were involved in both the script writing and the production of the movie, meaning that all the characters and different settings in the movie were real people and real places. Another positive is the good use of CGI, however, as the movie is heavily reliant on CGI it ended up being both a positive and negative. The CGI ended up being slightly detrimental at times as it felt a bit excessive in some scenes.
In the end, this movie still has more positives than negatives. Through its use of historically accurate scenes and well-done CGI, the viewer can confidently feel vested in the movie knowing that they are learning about an actual historical event. Finally, I would recommend this movie to those who enjoy history and find learning about World War II as well as to those who just enjoy action movies in general.
Review by Aditya