‘Midway’ Trailer: A Gravity Defying And Explosive World War II Epic

By the courage of a few, the world’s fate was changed in the Battle of Midway which is widely recognized as one of the vital turning points in World War II’s Pacific War. And soon, we’ll get to see how that fateful day went down in Roland Emmerich’s explosive new film Midway. 

Just from the trailer, the film already holds some promise. To begin with, Midway has a pretty spectacular cast who are playing real-life characters from the actual battle. Ed Skrein who is most known for his role as Ajax in Deadpool and his short time as Daario Naharis in Game of Thrones is leading the cast as Lieutenant Dick Best, one of the best dive bomber pilots of the time. Mandy Moore will be playing his wife Anne Best. Joining them as Lieutenant Commanders Layton, McClusky, and Doolittle are Patrick Wilson, Luke Evans, and Aaron Eckhart respectively. Other stars in the cast are Nick Jonas, Dennis Quaid, and Woody Harrelson.

In addition to the star-power, Midway already promises a lot of spectacular action and set pieces. And it seems that Emmerich will soon be adding it to his tracklist of extravagant explosive movies. Will it be enough to bring this legendary event to life though?

Midway: The Real Battle

The first minute of the trailer showcases the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor and how it greatly affected the American confidence in such a crucial point of the war. Learning from this, the Americans quickly work to predict Japan’s next attack. Soon, they realize that Japan’s next target is the Midway island, a vital outpost of Pearl Harbor. With this knowledge, they devise a plan to strike first. As Admiral Chester Nimitz (Harrelson) says “We need to throw a punch, so they know what it feels like to be hit.”

As the real story goes, the Battle of Midway proved to be just what the Allies needed to start gaining the upper hand in the war. This stunning and decisive battle crippled Japan terribly in terms of their resources and helped pave the way to force them back.

It would be interesting to see how Emmerich will present the complicated turn of events on that day as well as the days leading up to it. And with all that, the question now is whether the director will be able to put enough human dimension in it to justly honor the heroes of that war and to avoid Midway from being another explosive hollow action film.

Midway will hit theatres on November 8, 2019.