Review of Pearl Harbor (2001) by Enrica C — 07 Dec 2011

Simply said, if what you're looking for is a good action movie -- well, Michael Bay is your man, always. And "Pearl Harbor" is, plot-speaking, his best movie: it just takes you straight back in the 40s and shows you how the US lived those WWII years, how it all happened and what happened after the Pearl Harbor attack... That's probably my favorite thing about the movie: we all remember the Pearl Harbor attack on Dec 7th, 1941 and the war declaration, but nobody ever talks about the Doolittle Raid on Japan (18 April 1942). That was so interesting to learn, and remember.

Special effects are great considering the movie is from 2001: the battle scenes are just awesome, and seeing Hawaii turning from being a Paradise to being a Hell is just so sad and powerful. It just makes you image how was it like, -- This said, is really easy to follow the movie in its 165 minutes of length: there's a good balance between war facts, battle planning by the Japanese, living on the military base, etc.

Being this a war movie, I think that the 'forced' love triangle between nurse Evelyn and the two pilots (Rafe and Danny) was just too much. I can see how this love story pushed more people into seeing the movie, but on the other hand it made the movie sound less realistic and truth. Oh, and the soundtrack was good but could have been much more better: it didn't give me any strong emotion or goose bumps as it was supposed to be, so something was wrong there.

"Pearl Harbor" is not a perfect movie, but it's a nice, easily accessible way to remember what happened on this very day 70 years ago. It moved me because of the historic facts, but it didn't manage to get me as emotional as I hoped to get so it's not a straight 5 stars... Again, Michael Bay is your man if you're looking for a good action movie. This one has a decent plot, too and it's really easy to follow from beginning to end even if it's a historic movie rich of dates and facts. Recommended...