I didn't particularly like Pearl Harbor, but not for the reasons I expected. I'd heard it was tacky and corny -- and in places it is -- but the real reason I didn't care for it is because each event in the screenplay can be telegraphed anywhere from a half hour to an hour before it happens. In fact, that's precisely what I did when I viewed it; I tried to anticipate what was going to happen next and spoke my predictions aloud. To my dismay, my hunches were correct almost every time.
Take, for example, the character of Doris "Dorie" Miller, who is played by Cuba Gooding Jr. In one of his first few scenes, Miller's getting his boxing injuries treated by a helpful nurse named Evelyn Stewart (Kate Beckinsdale). He laments how he hasn't gotten a chance to do his part for his country because of the colour of his skin. Will fate give him the opportunity to rise to the challenge? Good grief, it's a picture directed by Michael Bay, of course it will. When pilot "Rafe McCawley" (Ben Affleck) is feared dead, will his best friend, pilot "Danny Walker" (Josh Hartnett), find himself falling in love with Rafe's woman (Beckinsdale) too? Will another blissfully happy newlywed couple (Ewan Bremner and James King), both quirky supporting characters, have to face an "unexpected" tragedy? Even blindfolded, such plot points are easy to anticipate.
The film, of course, should be about the Japanese aerial and naval attacks on the United States on December 7, 1941. What we get during the first hour and a half, however, is an extended chronicle of the romance between Rafe, Evelyn, and Danny. The three actors have a fair amount of chemistry, but because their exposition is so thorough, we start to wonder when the other movie -- the one about the attack itself -- will begin. When it does begin, Randall Wallace's script doesn't really provide a lot of insight into the reasons for Japan's attack in the first place. In fact, very few scenes actually feature any Japanese characters, with the exception of Mako, who plays Admiral Yamamoto. The rest of the subplots revolve around Dan Aykroyd as an "I-told-you-so" tactical expert, Jon Voight as President Roosevelt, and Alec Baldwin as General Dolittle, that familiar trainer character who only has so much time to whip the boys into shape.
Pearl Harbor is a thinly-veiled attempt to re-create the success of an epic, historical drama like 1997's Titanic. You've got your supposed star-crossed lovers, your ominously looming tragedy, and your big budget special effects that are meant to thrill and inspire gasps of awe. But Pearl Harbor never really hones in on any one of those elements, and sort of aimlessly drifts about without ever really feeling complete. Ultimately, Michael Bay ends up being the one who drops the most egregious bomb of them all.
