Abundant, not-quite-realistic computer-generated images make Midway look more like a video game than a depiction of real-life events. The overuse of subpar effects is the most dominant - but hardly the only - problem dogging this film. Epic war stories are difficult to tell without focusing on a few characters. This film unsuccessfully juggles too many plot threads and too many characters to keep an emotional anchor to the simulated events unfolding. Woody Harrelson is outstanding, but other cast members cannot overcome the limitations of the material and the challenges of acting on computer-generated sets.

Midway feels like a made-for-TV movie. It's full of cliched dialogue, acting, and plot points. When most of your movie hinges on the lead actor's performance, and that performance turns out to be melodramatic and cheesy, you've got a problem. Also, the visual effects were inconsistent, swinging from impressive to corny. This isn't a bad movie, but it's going to be easy for me to forget about it.

While I know a lot of reviewers liked the 1976 version of "Midway", for someone who knows about aircraft, it's a frustrating film. Again and again and again, the film uses old footage...much of which show planes which never fought at this famous sea battle! And, in a few cases, you'd see fighter planes turn into dive bombers and the like....all due to sloppy editing and a 'it's good enough' attitude. Because of this, I strongly recommend you see the 2019 version, which gets around this issue by using CGI...and modern CGI is incredible and looks real. Well made, but not perfect, but a very good film for folks who are interested in war films and history.

By the way, I wrote a review for this a few months ago and it never appeared on this site. It was much more detailed...but I just haven't seen it recently enough to review it more in depth.