_Midway_ attempts to depict the United States’ involvement in World War Two, beginning with the attack on Pearl Harbor and continuing through the Battle of Midway. The narrative centers around two characters who are portrayed based on actual individuals: Ed Skrein as Dick Best, a pilot aboard the USS Enterprise, and Patrick Wilson as intelligence officer Edwin Layton. Compressing seven months of wartime events into just over two hours is an enormous undertaking, and while the filmmakers managed to do it, the movie feels hurried. It’s difficult to become acquainted with all the numerous characters, and understanding everything that's rapidly presented likely requires a good familiarity with this period in history. I personally struggled to identify who was who during many scenes involving the pilots. Aside from Ed Skrein and Luke Evans, the other pilots and rear gunners are remarkably similar and appear so briefly on screen that there’s no opportunity to form any emotional attachment to them, even though the film tries to elicit sympathy. As a lead actor, Skrein seems stiff and uninspired, and I don't believe he possesses the presence needed for his role. Compounding the fast-paced story is the movie’s reliance on visual effects. With few exceptions, everything depicting ships or planes is entirely computer-generated, and it’s disappointing most of the time. It reminds me of a Playstation game. I think if they had narrowed the scope to exclude so many battles, there would have been fewer visual effects shots to create. And perhaps those remaining could have looked more convincing. As it stands, the effects are distracting—the planes move as if they’re floating and ignore physical laws, explosions look like they were created in AfterEffects, and ship scenes have an unpleasant green screen tint. Ultimately, I believe this film is weighed down by its ambition to cover too much ground at once. It feels more like three separate movies about Pearl Harbor, the Doolittle Raid, and the Battle of Midway that have been squeezed into one. The final product is a rushed film that’s hard to follow, with characters who are difficult to relate to, and visual effects that resemble those found in video games. This won't be remembered as a classic war movie.

Source on TMDB