An average movie

To be honest I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but it had been a while since I saw a huge bombastic action flick from Roland Emmerich and, since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. I actually already saw another movie about the same battle released in 1976 but it was almost 10 years ago and I have to admit that I didn't remember much about it. Anyway, it was probably the most serious movie ever delivered by Emmerich but while it was definitely a commendable approach, the end-result was not really thrilling. Sure, it all seemed to be more or less historically accurate but, as a result, the movie was basically divided between some really impressive action scenes and some rather tedious history lessons. At least, it was nice that they didn't add any superfluous romantic subplots (which was the main reason why 'Pearl Harbor' had been at the time a major critical flop) or any other subplot for that matter. However, as a result, the whole thing felt rather dry as they only focused on the historical events and not much on the characters themselves. I mean, there was indeed a big cast (Ed Skrein, Patrick Wilson, Woody Harrelson, Luke Evans, Mandy Moore, Dennis Quaid, Aaron Eckhart, Nick Jonas) but none of their characters was developed whatsoever. The only exception was for Ed Skrein who did manage to have slightly more screen time than the rest of his colleagues but I'm afraid he wasn't really up to the task. Indeed, ever since the guy had his breakthrough in 'Games of Thrones' (a job he actually dumped after a few episodes), I can't say he ever really impressed me and to have him carrying such a huge historical blockbuster like this one was probably asking too much. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I think it was a decent watch but, even so, it was still another rather forgettable directing effort from Emmerich.