Pearl Harbor

[karl]

The Pearl Harbor trailer is in the theaters.

Like Titantic, Pearl Harbor has the distinct narrative problem in creating movie entertainment out of a single one-act event.

Sure there is all the intrigue of missed opportunities leading up to the attack, but most of this is of interest only to war historians these days. Tora Tora Tora!, one of the classic movies on this event, was sometimes ponderous about these missed opportunities - but they were playing to an audience eager to know why.

Like Titantic, it appears based on the trailers that Pearl Harbor will focus primarily on interpersonal stories in the back drop of the actual event.

Your thoughts?

[FantasmicFan82]

That movie's Looking good to me, it's on my list of movies to see very soon. (along with Tomb Raider and Mummy2) My Best Friend who hates movies about wars actually think it might be good as well. hrm. I'll have to give a report on it when i see it.

[lisap]

Pearl Harbor does look good. What bugs me, though, is those really long trailers that give away all the key images of the movie. I mean, we all know what happens in the movie unless they change history, so why do they have to show all the cool visual aspects beforehand--it really spoils it for me :confused:

The trailer for Serendipity annoys me too--they give away the WHOLE plot! I'll still see it though--I love John Cusak (sp?):)

[Napsto]

the movie looks like it is going ot be great!

[Ralph Wiggum]

I see what you mean karl!!! I think.... It does seem to play on the few key relationships and trials of certain characters but i think thats how it has to be to make it an interesting movie. It helps to draw you to the story and feel like you were there cause your put in the shoes of these characters. If it wasnt so "personal" it would almost be a documentary.

Is that whay you were talking about Karl?

[karl]

In a way, yes..

Another way to put it - The storyline of Titantic could be set in almost any disaster. The real story of why and how Titantic sunk was irrelevant to the movie.

In the same way, the real story of Pearl Harbor will likely only serve as the backdrop to the film. Sure there will be some cool effects and scenes of aircraft attacking ships, but the focus will be on the characters.

This is in contrast to most war movies where the story is the battle.

Mostly this is observation - and I think a suggestion that Pearl Harbor is likely modeled after the Titantic movie formula.

We'll see.

- Karl

[Ralph Wiggum]

Oh yes... i totally agree. The second i saw the trailor i thought to myself...Titanic!!!... I have a feeling this might do better than Titanic though....as far as box office earnings.

[dgthx]

First of all, I hate Michael Bay's movies. They are only eye candy with no substance. They're loud and obnoxious. But I can't wait to see this movie. It just looks too visually good to pass up. Hopefully the story won't suck.

I don't think this will surpass Titanic in box office sales, though. DeCaprio has the drawing edge with young girls over Aflek. And lets face it, teenage girls and their mothers really helped put Titanic over the top. Plus young girls aren't usually interested in war movies.

[Ralph Wiggum]

That's the thing though....Its not for just women and teenage girls.....Its got the love story element for the women and girls but it also has the action, suspence and visual stimulus that will get the guys coming back for more(or at least that's what i get from the trailor). Guess we will have to see once the movie is released!!

[lisap]

I heard somewhere that it's the kind of movie that will do well but not get repeat business like Titanic did--More like a Saving Private Ryan type of movie--important to see, but maybe too much to sit through repeatedly.

[dgthx]

More like a Saving Private Ryan type of movie--important to see, but maybe too much to sit through repeatedly.

Schindler's List is the ultimate important to see movie but maybe too much to sit through repeatedly movie.

[lisap]

I agree--painful to watch, but something everyone should see once.

[Napsto]

doesn't it open next weeknd?

[Doodle Duck]

The actual attack on PH comes 90 minutes into the movie..and the battle scene is 40 minutes long...there is other action however in the frst part involving some Euro/Nazi elements as well.
There should be enough for everybody..the relationship drek (wake me when the bombs start to fall) and the overblown cgi FX stuff for us guys. All in all should be a happy medium.
To see how the film is already being reacted to crtitically..and for all the reviews WHEN it opens,

http://www.rottentomatoes.com

The FULL gamut of Shrek reviews are up..tons of them.

[lisap]

I heard today that Disney is "renting" the aircraft carrier John C. Stennis with crew which had to go all the way from San Diego to Hawaii for the premiere for one million a day. I guess they are very confident in their returns for the film!

[mouseboy]

pearl harbor should easily pull down 30-40 m this weekend. i imagine we will draw quite a few people who had a direct connection to the attack (which wasn't as much the case with titantic).
ive been reading about how some people are beginning to doubt the potential of this movie. i see it as being in the top 5 for the next three weeks, and possibly number one again next weekend, depending on how moulin rouge is received.
my .02

MB

[Alex S.]

I've seen some estimates that Pearl Harbor may top $100 million for the three day weekend.

[rob]

I've been looking at this film for a while and I have some doubts. The story yesterday about Anti-Japanese comments in the film while appropriate to the period strikes me as potentially a problem.

I think of how things were handled in Tora! Tora! Tora! where anti-Japanese sentiments were clearly shown when a young Japanese-American boy is delivering an important telegram to the military base at Pearl Harbor and the look he gets from the white soldier receiving the telegram. The distrust in that look forshadows Manzanar and sums up how easily prejuidice could be conjured up. I don't see much indicating this telling will do anything to show the Japanese side to the attack or the incompetent decisions on both sides. The focus on the love story I think might lead to more of a forties wartime feeling to the movie with the military issues being black and white with no shades of gray.

I realise this is an action film, but it is a historical setting as well. Where Titannic offered some brilliant insights into how and why the sinking was so horrific, I think this film will cloud the issues and in fact promote bad feelings. Tora! was way too ponderous to be more than docu-entertainment, but offering this romance with a historical backdrop without some balance may be a big mistake.

[Napsto]

so who saw it?

[Doodle Duck]

IMHO: re-title..Snora Snora Snora...Bora Bora Bora..3 hours and 3 minutes...get the DVD and click to the 40 minutes of effects.
The candy counter was PACKED through out the showing. 1st weekend will be killer..after that SHREK hits a Home Run.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Great movie!! I saw it tonight and enjoyed it. It was borderline cheezy at many points but then again what do you expect.

[Doodle Duck]

Again: Here are ALL the reviews...most are Hilarious!
26% of critics liked it to an extant..74% laid on the boot...some very funny, creative writing in the reviews..

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/movie-1108389/

[Ralph Wiggum]

thats why i dont listen to critics

[karl]

According to some of the movie news...

Pearl Harbor did not break the box record.

Expectations are in the 60-80 million range for the Four-Day weekend. Only 39.7 mil for the first two days. Disney did not release Sunday expectations.

With reviews and viewer ratings either positive or harshly negative (its tracking 6.3 of 10 on IMDB), should be interesting next weekend.

Could Shrek pass up Pearl? Will Disney recover the production and marketing costs for the film. If they do, will it be the return Wall Street is looking for?

-- Karl

[JeffG]

I thought the film was at least an hour too long and generally suffered from some very poor writing, some mediocre acting, and less than effective direction.

I found the romantic triangle to be exceptionally cliched and sappy, as well as generally out of place in this film. It really struck me that the filmmakers had looked at the success at "Titanic" and were more interested in trying to duplicate that than they were in trying to actually effectively tell the story of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The film really needed to focus on the characters as soldiers instead of on boring, badly written romantic complications.

I didn't even think the Pearl Harbor attack sequence was as effective as it should have been. The constant rapid cutting (Michael Bay still seems to have an inability to hold a shot for more than 5 seconds...) combined with the film's failure to create compelling characters for us to focus on made for a sequence that eventually became more mind-numbing than compelling.

It wasn't helped at all by some less than effective stylistic choices such as the blurred slow-mo in the hospital sequences (I honestly thought there was a projection problem for a moment) or the occasionally sudden jumps to newsreel-style footage (an interesting idea, but not very well executed). The sequence was also terribly overscored, with the music straining to punctuate every moment. I wish more filmmakers would pay attention to Spielberg and Williams' brilliant decision to forgo music during the opening battle sequence in "Saving Private Ryan".

I think my wife summed it up pretty well at the end of the movie when she called the film a "typical summer blow-up movie". I really think the subject matter here deserved so much more.

-Jeff