The Battle of Midway, waged from June 4th-7th 1942, is ranked up there with history’s most decisive and influential naval battles. Just six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, following a series of feints and counter-feints on the part of both the Japanese and US navies, four of the six fleet carriers involved in the Pearl attack were sunk, along with a heavy cruiser. The yanks lost a carrier and a destroyer. The battle decimated the Japanese fleet, and is seen as a major turning point in the war.

Someone could make a good movie about it. This isn’t it. (Charlton Heston and Henry Fonda starred in a 1976 snorer about the same battle; that wasn’t it either). The reason is that it’s from crap director Roland Emmerich. (Roland is the guy who decided in 1998 that Godzilla should friggin’ sprint. Godzilla does NOT SPRINT! He lumbers menacingly. Jeez.)

Since his crowd-pleasing Independence Day in 1996, Emmerich has specialized in soulless action flicks noted for their copious amounts of screen-saver special effects, vapid dialogue (mostly yelled), and atrocious performances by overpaid and/or simply bad actors playing underdeveloped characters. This is another one. Want to appreciate the Battle of Midway? Read a book; or even a Wikipedia entry. (138 min)