Pearl Harbor

Wow, I haven't done one of these since last year! OK, obligatory new year joke and obligatory long pause joke is done. On to the actual review. Pearl Harbor was directed by Michael Bay, well known in the film industry for unimaginative plots and large explosions. Naturally, I went into Pearl Harbor with very low expectations. But this is the film that revealed Michael Bay's true creative brilliance to me. It is a powerful statement about the modern movie industry and a great example of brilliant satire. It is so deep, I'm not sure where to start. For example, Bay criticizes the tendency of some movies to have forgettable characters by making all of the characters in the film have absolutely no personality and essentially the same character. Even the lead characters do not differ in any way from the generic support characters. The character of Red, in particular, is a marvelous hyperbolic satire of what passes for "unique character traits" in modern action blockbusters. Red has a stutter. That's it. That is all that defines him, and yet he is the most unique and developed character in the film. Well done, Michael. I could go on about all the clever moments of satire in this film, from the lampshading of the unrealistic lenience movie protagonists always seem to get for their escapades, to its criticism of the one-sided portrayals of "the enemy" in many war films, but it would be far too long. A masterpiece of satire that I wholeheartedly recommend.

127/130

Warning: This movie contains people that didn't exist. If you are offended by the concept of fiction, do not watch this film.