Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Pearl Harbor


2001 war film based on true event--
Empire of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor.



Directed by Michael Bay
Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer
Music by Hans Zimmer


My friends who know me well, probably knew these three fellows are always my favourite filmmakers.
The chemical effects between them is clearly seen in "The Rock".

Jerry Bruckheimer pair up with Michael Bay for the third time since "The Rock" and "Armageddon".
But "Pearl Harbor" is a huge dissapointment.


This movie proves a fact that action movie director should not direct a war film.
Same mistake repeat by John Woo in "Windtalkers".

Two worst things in this movie is the screenplay and acting.

The essense of history in Pearl Harbor event is totally gone.
It's all fucked up by the triangle relationship between Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett, and Kate Beckinsale.


If you divide this movie into parts according to plot by feature time, you will find how draggy the script is.

First part, it's all about romantic and "touching"(not for me) love story.
Feature time: 90minutes
Comment: Boring!!!

Second part, attack on Pearl Harbor.
Feature time: 30minutes
Comment: Michael Bay showed his character. Not bad....great sounds effect and editing!!!!

Third part, American revenge....and.....unresolved love conflicts.
Feature time: 60minutes
Comment: Oh no, not again!!!


There is lack of historical facts, truth and real characters portrayed in the movie.
The footage is a waste and doesnt really concern with the plot.

The love triangle itself can already be made for another movie independantly.
It is a waste because Pearl Harbor's attack is a huge event in world history, but unluckily audiences cannot get any meaningful message from the movie.

3hours is absolutely draggy, and suffering.
The 30minutes bombing scene is well-done but it didnt advance the plot.
It can only shows how talented Michael Bay is to explode buildings and ships.

Another poor thing in this movie is the bad acting.
Ben Affleck is one the lead actor that I hate the most.
I really don't know what the hell is going on to his acting skill.
He just, won't improve.


But ofcourse, there are still some good things you can find in this movie.
The soundtrack is good, Hanz Zimmer remains his quality in Pearl Harbor.
The music makes the movie beautiful and it fits well to those nice scenery at Pearl Harbor.

Some of the scenes' cinematography is great.
I like how the first armor-piercing bombs drops on the ship.
Very memorable!!!

Overall, Pearl Harbor is not a great movie.
Feelike vommit after watching....
Sorry Michael Bay!

3 comments:

Lace said...

Hey did you check out The Star couple days ago? It featured several blockbusters whose scripts went haywire. Like Pearl Harbor, it seems the warships and tanks and planes and whatever it is they used in the movie didn't even exist back in 1941 (forgot the year already haha) when Pearl Harbor was bombed.

I refused to watch the film at first mainly cuz I didn't like Ben Affleck. Not cuz of his acting, I just didn't like him for some reason.

The storyline? I dunno abt you guys but I thought Pearl Harbor was talking abt war, politics, bombs .. the cool stuff. But instead I got a soldier meets nurse, soldier falls for nurse, nurse falls for soldier, soldier dies, soldier number 2 sleeps with nurse .. classic Hollywood. No joke

The only part I enjoyed were the soundtracks.

jiateng said...

I heard before that the movie's props and setting are not historical accurate, but that's Michael Bay.
A commercialize Hollywood director, don't really care about that.
Thats why many film critics do not like him.

Tammy-C-My said...

My history teacher once said:
"Kalau you all ada tengok betul-betul Pearl Harbour...disregard all the cinta-cinta tu...ada satu scene yg kata org Jepun sudah tak cukup bekalan..."

Oh...at least the "tak cukup bekalan" part is accurate ;P

BORING! Sorry...love story - lame; 3 hour long love story - Pearl Harbour