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'Midway' Trailer: Roland Emmerich Does World War II

midway trailer
By Chris Evangelista/

At some point, Independence Day director Roland Emmerich must have watched Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor and thought, "I can do that." And so he did! The result is Midway, which might as well be called Roland Emmerich's Pearl Harbor Remake. The visual aesthetic of the film, right down to the digitally enhanced destruction and oversaturated lighting, looks nearly identical to Bay's WWII flick. But hey, at least he did away with that love story stuff. Girls – yuck! Watch the Midway trailer below.

Midway Trailer 

Roland Emmerich never met a cinematic landscape he couldn't blow the hell up. The disaster movie maven has made his name as a director of mass destruction, and now he's getting historical with Midway. The film "centers on the Battle of Midway, a clash between the American fleet and the Imperial Japanese Navy which marked a pivotal turning point in the Pacific Theater during WWII. The film, based on the real-life events of this heroic feat, tells the story of the leaders and soldiers who used their instincts, fortitude and bravery to overcome the odds."

Really, though, it's just an excuse for Emmerich to stage big, loud action set pieces where planes zoom through fire and smoke, and CGI ships sink. If that's your thing, you might get a kick out of all of this. To stage his big war movie, Emmerich has assembled a cast that includes Ed Skrein, Patrick Wilson, Luke Evans, Aaron Eckhart, Nick Jonas, Etsushi Toyokawa, Tadanobu Asano, Luke Kleintank, Jun Kunimura, Darren Criss, Keean Johnson, Alexander Ludwig, with Mandy Moore, Dennis Quaid and Woody Harrelson. Wilson gets most of the screen time in this trailer, spending all of his footage yelling at people while wearing tiny glasses.

Speaking with USA Today, Emmerich says of the film: "It shows an America that's not the superpower, a country that just came out of a big recession and tried to stay out of a war but got sucked into it. It was a simpler time, but it also was a time where you had to put your life in danger for ideals."

Emmerich also acknowledges the inevitable Pearl Harbor connections, admitting that he had been trying to get Midway made for years, but was forced to wait to make it in the aftermath of Michael Bay's 2001 war epic. But enough time has apparently gone by that Emmerich and distributor Lionsgate feel confident enough to unleash Midway upon moviegoers.

Midway opens November 8, 2019.

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