Action

MOVIE REVIEW . Midnight Eagle

My first hint should have been that the laurel leaves on the poster surrounded no award notice. No best of category, no viewer’s choice, not even special mention. Just “Opening Film at the Tokyo Film Festival.” To give you an idea of the prestige involved here, the Pierce Brosnan Julianne Moore film, Laws of Attraction, was featured as the opening film of one of the past few years’ SF Indie Festivals. You guessed it. Midnight Eagle just plain sucks.

The basic story of Midnight Eagle involves a downed US Stealth fighter, carrying a live nuclear weapon, in the blizzard ridden Japanese Alps. The crash is witnessed, and captured, by a Japanese war photographer (Takao Osawa) backpacking in the snow covered mountains. With the government denying the existence of the plane, a rogue journalist decides to launch his own investigation. With the photographer in tow, the two head up the mountain. They soon discover a full on covert war as government and terrorist organizations alike converge on the downed plane. But there’s something else. The nuke on board has been armed and is counting down. If the thing explodes it will take out all of Tokyo. The two find themselves in a race against time to find the plane and disarm the bomb, thus saving the lives of 127 million people.

Sounds great, right? Only it’s not. Wonky edits and kludgy divergences into soft-focus flashbacks plague this film from the get-go. While initially I thought the treatment was designed to let you get to know the characters, their background and motivations, as well as see the situation from their perspective (ie: they being civilian journalists, they have no insight into secret government missions or terrorist plottings), this treatment only continued once they had been enlightened to the events, ensuring a distance and disinterest on the part of the audience. In the action corner, gun battles occur sudden and fast, with little indication as to who is involved, shooting, or shot at (I actually thought the main character was hit a good number of times).

The actions and interactions of the characters involved are similarly hindered by these off-tempo edits. While the lines they deliver are given much gravity, what with the seriousness of their content and their accompaniment by the requisite orchestral emotion inducers, they ultimately rang hollow and false. This all amounts to an action picture that flows less like super slick Wd-40 than sticky, crusty caramel. And, believe it or not, in only manages to slow as the film progresses, even with the nuclear bomb ticking down, and the plot spiraling towards its final, mind bogglingly stupid moments (I won’t mention them here, should some of you still want to attend the picture, but I will be happy to discuss them with you in the comments.)

But, if I had to say anything positive about the experience, I guess I would note the impressive scenery in the snow covered Alps, as well as some interesting (but badly executed) ideas regarding nation states and the inherent unrest promoted by their amassing of armies. And the theater in which the film played, the Japantown Sundance Kabuki, is really quite nice (grand opening next week!). The seats are more like loungers, so they’re very comfortable, and likely to facilitate sleeping should you be unfortunate enough to attend a film like Midnight Eagle. Yup, that’s about it.

In closing, Midnight Eagle was one of the worst films I’ve seen all year. Terrible. Avoid it at all costs.

About the Author

Chris Nelson has been a film fanatic since age six. A former film and English major, he is now a Software Engineer and contract Technical Writer living in the Silicon Valley.