Why? Bad script, bad acting, bad CGI.
For me, the movie gets it all wrong right at the beginning when "Dick Best" pulls off his totally unbelievable, ridiculous cowboy stunt landing on the carrier, trying to impress his rookie gunner. Ed Skrein has not one single redeeming scene or dialogue thereafter in the whole movie where he might actually resemble a real person. Of course he must contend with the terrible, infantile script he was given but maybe he really is just a bad actor. For me this issue got aggrevated due to his character getting the most screen time of them all.
It is also there that it is impossible not to notice right from the start the badly done CGI that pervades the whole movie and reduces it to the visual experience of a video game. Everything is always clean and in excellent repair or condition. The planes always look like they are on their maiden flight, clean and shiny, no specks of leaked oil or traces of exhaust fumes, no dings, no flaws. They still look good and clean even with a lot of holes in them from enemy fire. It is just very ridiculous and easily identified when comparing them to photos of operational combat war planes from the era. They were gruffy, got used and were banged up.
The general cleanliness of the movie irked me at other times too. The actors never seem to sweat or look too distressed. Most silly example of that was the scene of Bruno Gaido and his pilot in the life raft after crashing down into the ocean. Despite the stress and agony they must have gone through over the last few minutes, hours or perhaps days, Gaido looks clean, fresh and cheerful like having stepped out of the bathroom right after his morning toilette.
The script offers only a few moments of intelligence, credibility and genuity and for the most part reduces the actors to mere caricatures of real people. The scenes involving Adm. Nimitz/Woody Harrelson are quite well-done. This includes his encounter with Rochefort in the "Dungeon". It is marred only by the highly improbable even embarrassing speech the script gives the Rochefort actor. Nobody would talk so lacking in respect and factuality to their commanding 4-star Admiral. But then Rochefort actually says some intelligent things too, and the actor Brennan Brown gave a very credible impression.
One other noteworthy, good dialogue I found the brief scene at the officers casino where McClusky explains Best's wife the real reason why her husband was not getting promoted because of recklessness and total disregard of his own and, above all, his men's safety. That actually made a lot of sense. And Luke Evans is a serviceable actor.
Speaking of the actors, of the main leads only Woody Harrelson and the Japanese officers (Yamamoto, Nagumo and Yamaguchi) I found convincing. Patrick Wilson suffers because he is incapable of any facial expressions or nuances in delivering his part. He reminded me of Kevin Costner in that respect, constantly looking like a beaten dog or having a tummy ache. Ed Skrein ruins his opening scene and it goes downhill from there. Dennis Quaid probably overdid the "Bull" aspect of his character a little bit, but was not terrible. Aaron Eckhart is a good actor but had nothing to work with.
The whole side story of the Doolittle Raid was I found a bit of a waste to see in this movie. But I can imagine it was in part a bow to the Chinese side of the production, as without the Chinese cooperation none of Doolittle's men would have survived when in fact some 71 of 80 returned while the Chinese paid a high price for their help, as correctly stated in the movie.
Overall this movie falls short for me on many levels to be enjoyed. I cited some things but there are many more (eg. Depiction of the actual fighting, confusing editing and plot holes, as well as some historical inaccuracies), while its redeeming qualities I can only find a few, like the good soundtrack and the outro mini-bio's before the end titles.
If you want to learn more about the real Midway I can recommend the book "The Battle of Midway" by Greg L. Symonds as an excellent read.
For me, the movie gets it all wrong right at the beginning when "Dick Best" pulls off his totally unbelievable, ridiculous cowboy stunt landing on the carrier, trying to impress his rookie gunner. Ed Skrein has not one single redeeming scene or dialogue thereafter in the whole movie where he might actually resemble a real person. Of course he must contend with the terrible, infantile script he was given but maybe he really is just a bad actor. For me this issue got aggrevated due to his character getting the most screen time of them all.
It is also there that it is impossible not to notice right from the start the badly done CGI that pervades the whole movie and reduces it to the visual experience of a video game. Everything is always clean and in excellent repair or condition. The planes always look like they are on their maiden flight, clean and shiny, no specks of leaked oil or traces of exhaust fumes, no dings, no flaws. They still look good and clean even with a lot of holes in them from enemy fire. It is just very ridiculous and easily identified when comparing them to photos of operational combat war planes from the era. They were gruffy, got used and were banged up.
The general cleanliness of the movie irked me at other times too. The actors never seem to sweat or look too distressed. Most silly example of that was the scene of Bruno Gaido and his pilot in the life raft after crashing down into the ocean. Despite the stress and agony they must have gone through over the last few minutes, hours or perhaps days, Gaido looks clean, fresh and cheerful like having stepped out of the bathroom right after his morning toilette.
The script offers only a few moments of intelligence, credibility and genuity and for the most part reduces the actors to mere caricatures of real people. The scenes involving Adm. Nimitz/Woody Harrelson are quite well-done. This includes his encounter with Rochefort in the "Dungeon". It is marred only by the highly improbable even embarrassing speech the script gives the Rochefort actor. Nobody would talk so lacking in respect and factuality to their commanding 4-star Admiral. But then Rochefort actually says some intelligent things too, and the actor Brennan Brown gave a very credible impression.
One other noteworthy, good dialogue I found the brief scene at the officers casino where McClusky explains Best's wife the real reason why her husband was not getting promoted because of recklessness and total disregard of his own and, above all, his men's safety. That actually made a lot of sense. And Luke Evans is a serviceable actor.
Speaking of the actors, of the main leads only Woody Harrelson and the Japanese officers (Yamamoto, Nagumo and Yamaguchi) I found convincing. Patrick Wilson suffers because he is incapable of any facial expressions or nuances in delivering his part. He reminded me of Kevin Costner in that respect, constantly looking like a beaten dog or having a tummy ache. Ed Skrein ruins his opening scene and it goes downhill from there. Dennis Quaid probably overdid the "Bull" aspect of his character a little bit, but was not terrible. Aaron Eckhart is a good actor but had nothing to work with.
The whole side story of the Doolittle Raid was I found a bit of a waste to see in this movie. But I can imagine it was in part a bow to the Chinese side of the production, as without the Chinese cooperation none of Doolittle's men would have survived when in fact some 71 of 80 returned while the Chinese paid a high price for their help, as correctly stated in the movie.
Overall this movie falls short for me on many levels to be enjoyed. I cited some things but there are many more (eg. Depiction of the actual fighting, confusing editing and plot holes, as well as some historical inaccuracies), while its redeeming qualities I can only find a few, like the good soundtrack and the outro mini-bio's before the end titles.
If you want to learn more about the real Midway I can recommend the book "The Battle of Midway" by Greg L. Symonds as an excellent read.