The first thing Roland Emmerich should do after his latest movie "Midway" hits theaters is apologize.
Apologize to the visual effects crew, the stuntmen, the carpenters, the costumers and artists. He has squandered their considerable visual skill in retelling the crucial World War II battle at Midway by melding some of the best action sequences in years with the most banal of words.
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This image released by Lionsgate shows Ed Skrein, left, and Mandy Moore in a scene from "Midway." (Reiner BajoLionsgate via AP)
This image released by Lionsgate shows Keean Johnson, left, and Ed Skrein in a scene from "Midway." (Reiner BajoLionsgate via AP)
This image released by Lionsgate shows Hiromoto Ida, left, and Hiroaki Shintani in a scene from "Midway." (Reiner BajoLionsgate via AP)
This image released by Lionsgate shows Ed Skrein, left, and Luke Kleintank in a scene from "Midway." (Reiner BajoLionsgate via AP)
This image released by Lionsgate shows Mandy Moore, left, and Ed Skrein in a scene from "Midway." (Reiner BajoLionsgate via AP)
This image released by Lionsgate shows Luke Kleintank, foreground left, and Ed Skrein in a scene from "Midway." (Reiner BajoLionsgate via AP)
What's the point of scouring 1941 Navy regulations to ground the real-life characters in authentic military gear if they say stuff like this: "I guess every battle needs a miracle."
This image released by Lionsgate shows Ed Skrein, left, and Mandy Moore in a scene from "Midway." (Reiner BajoLionsgate via AP)
What's the point of locating the original blueprints of a gun, and then carefully recreating it, if the script calls for an airman to tell his pilot: "You fly like you don't care if we come home."
Emmerich has turned "Midway " into another of his films, "Independence Day," which was cartoony but worked because we knew it was over the top. Here, the director has taken real, living men who acted heroically and turned them into pulp comic strip characters. He might need to apologize to them the most.
Screenwriter Wes Tooke has apparently never seen a cliche he didn't want to embrace. His script is as textured and nuanced as an upbeat newsreel from the '40s. No, there's no young G.I nicknamed Brooklyn, but there are hotshot flyboys who stick their chewing gum next to a photo of their wives in the cockpit during dogfights.
This image released by Lionsgate shows Keean Johnson, left, and Ed Skrein in a scene from "Midway." (Reiner BajoLionsgate via AP)
Tooke's one-dimensional characters help the plot along by stating only the very obvious, like "If we lose, we lose the Pacific" and "This place is a powder keg." (Keep that last one in mind; stuff will blow up and it will be called foreshadowing.)
The Battle of Midway took place between June 4-7, 1942, and pitted Japanese Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, architect of the raid on Pearl Harbor, against U.S. Navy Adm. Chester Nimitz. The U.S. had been stung by the sneak attack in Hawaii and were underdogs in the Pacific.
But the U.S. Navy, having cracked Japan's code system, anticipated Japanese naval movements and gained the upper hand. The battle ended Japan's aspirations of naval dominance in the Pacific and showed the Allies that victory was possible.
This image released by Lionsgate shows Hiromoto Ida, left, and Hiroaki Shintani in a scene from "Midway." (Reiner BajoLionsgate via AP)
Like its cousin in WW II filmed failure, the Ben Affleck-led "Pearl Harbor," Emmerich has decided to tell this sprawling story using multiple characters, including showing the Japanese side. Hint: Everyone is brave.
In the actual battle theater are the brave, bad-boy bomber pilot Dick Best (Ed Skrein), the brave but more cautious Clarence Dickinson (Luke Kleintank), the downhome brave Admiral William "Bull" Halsey (Dennis Quaid), the swaggeringly brave Jimmy Doolittle (Aaron Eckhart) and the brave and cocksure Bruno Gaido (a mustachioed Nick Jonas, reaching the very limits of his acting skills).
You can instantly tell why these actors signed up. Jonas gets to shoot an anti-aircraft artillery gun at a plunging Japanese Zero and prove his courage. "That was the bravest damn thing I've ever seen. What's your name, son?" an awed officer says. Skrein, as Best, gets to be a daredevil pilot who is admired by everyone. "Men like Dick Best are the reason we're gonna win this war," says one awed pilot. Eckhart gets to strut about in a leather flying jacket and look awesome.
This image released by Lionsgate shows Ed Skrein, left, and Luke Kleintank in a scene from "Midway." (Reiner BajoLionsgate via AP)
Onshore there are the brave intelligence officer Edwin Layton (Patrick Wilson) and the brave outside-the-box Nimitz (Woody Harrelson). The Japanese are elegant, contained and brave, too, especially Yamamoto (Etsushi Toyokawa) and Rear Admiral Tamon Yamaguchi (Tadanobu Asano).
Tooke has presumably met women in real life but really doesn't prove here that he knows how they think or speak at all. They, too, are brave — frustrated that their men are constantly working hard at saving democracy but understanding. (One nicely declares to her exhausted spouse: "I'll fix you a sandwich.") Mandy Moore, utterly wasted as Best's wife, says things like "I've never seen you this worried before" and "Come to bed." We're told she is a "firecracker."
Credit to Emmerich and his filmmakers for telling this battle from the air, ships and underwater (we get to see the staff of the USS Nautilus submarine) and the images are striking — gut-twisting bomber runs and pumping ammunition. But once again, even in the face of this cinematic and real-life triumph, the dialogue is paper thin.
This image released by Lionsgate shows Mandy Moore, left, and Ed Skrein in a scene from "Midway." (Reiner BajoLionsgate via AP)
"We did it!" says a pilot at the end, after they obviously did it. Another, dropping ordinance onto a Japanese carrier, states the obvious: "This is for Pearl." ''Midway" might be a film best watched if you switch off the volume.
"Midway," a Lionsgate release, is rated PG-13 for "sequences of war violence and related images, language and smoking." Running time: 138 minutes. One star out of four.
MPAA Definition of PG-13: Parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
This image released by Lionsgate shows Luke Kleintank, foreground left, and Ed Skrein in a scene from "Midway." (Reiner BajoLionsgate via AP)
Online: https://midway.movie
Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's administration on Wednesday sought to assert its control over Venezuelan oil, seizing a pair of sanctioned tankers transporting petroleum and announcing plans to relax some sanctions so the U.S. can oversee the sale of Venezuela’s petroleum worldwide.
Trump's administration intends to control the distribution of Venezuela’s oil products globally following its ouster of President Nicolás Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid. Besides the United States enforcing an existing oil embargo, the Energy Department says the “only oil transported in and out of Venezuela” will be through approved channels consistent with U.S. law and national security interests.
That level of control over the world’s largest proven reserves of crude oil could give the Trump administration a broader hold on oil supplies globally in ways that could enable it to influence prices. Both moves reflect the Republican administration’s determination to make good on its effort to control the next steps in Venezuela through its vast oil resources after Trump has pledged the U.S. will “run” the country.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested that the oil taken from the sanctioned vessels seized in the North Atlantic and the Caribbean Sea would be sold as part of the deal announced by Trump on Tuesday under which Venezuela would provide up to 50 million barrels of oil to the U.S.
“One of those ships that was seized that had oil in the Caribbean, you know what the interim authorities are asking for in Venezuela?” Rubio told reporters after briefing lawmakers Wednesday about the Maduro operation. “They want that oil that was seized to be part of this deal. They understand that the only way they can move oil and generate revenue and not have economic collapse is if they cooperate and work with the United States.”
U.S. European Command said on social media that the merchant vessel Bella 1 was seized in the North Atlantic for “violations of U.S. sanctions." The U.S. had been pursuing the tanker since last month after it tried to evade a blockade on sanctioned oil vessels around Venezuela.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem revealed U.S. forces also took control of the M Sophia in the Caribbean Sea. Noem said on social media that both ships were “either last docked in Venezuela or en route to it."
The two ships join at least two others that were taken by U.S. forces last month — the Skipper and the Centuries.
The Bella 1 had been cruising across the Atlantic nearing the Caribbean on Dec. 15 when it abruptly turned and headed north, toward Europe. The change in direction came days after the first U.S. tanker seizure of a ship on Dec. 10 after it had left Venezuela carrying oil.
When the U.S. Coast Guard tried to board the Bella 1, it fled. U.S. European Command said a Coast Guard vessel had tracked the ship “pursuant to a warrant issued by a U.S. federal court."
As the U.S. pursued it, the Bella 1 was renamed Marinera and flagged to Russia, shipping databases show. A U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations, said the ship’s crew had painted a Russian flag on the side of the hull.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said it had information about Russian nationals among the Marinera's crew and, in a statement carried by Russia’s state news agencies Tass and RIA Novosti, demanded that "the American side ensure humane and dignified treatment of them, strictly respect their rights and interests, and not hinder their speedy return to their homeland.”
Separately, a senior Russian lawmaker, Andrei Klishas, decried the U.S. action as “blatant piracy.”
The Justice Department is investigating crew members of the Bella 1 vessel for failing to obey Coast Guard orders and “criminal charges will be pursued against all culpable actors,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said.
“The Department of Justice is monitoring several other vessels for similar enforcement action — anyone on any vessel who fails to obey instructions of the Coast Guard or other federal officials will be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Bondi said on X.
The ship had been sanctioned by the U.S. in 2024 on allegations of smuggling cargo for a company linked to Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran.
The Trump administration, meanwhile, is “selectively” removing sanctions to enable the shipping and sale of Venezuelan oil to markets worldwide, according to an outline of the policies published Wednesday by the Energy Department.
The sales are slated to begin immediately with 30 million to 50 million barrels of oil. The U.S. government said the sales “will continue indefinitely,” with the proceeds settling in U.S.-controlled accounts at “globally recognized banks.” The money would be disbursed to the U.S. and Venezuelan populations at the “discretion” of Trump’s government.
The U.S. plans to authorize the importation of oil field equipment, parts and services to increase Venezuela’s oil production, which has been roughly 1 million barrels a day.
The Trump administration has indicated it also will invest in Venezuela’s electricity grid to increase production and the quality of life for people in Venezuela, whose economy has been unraveling amid changes to foreign aid and cuts to state subsidies, making necessities, including food, unaffordable to millions.
Noem said both seized ships were part of a shadow fleet of rusting oil tankers that smuggle oil for countries facing sanctions, such as Venezuela, Russia and Iran.
After the seizure of the now-named Marinera, which open-source maritime tracking sites showed was between Scotland and Iceland earlier Wednesday, the U.K. defense ministry said Britain’s military provided support, including surveillance aircraft.
“This ship, with a nefarious history, is part of a Russian-Iranian axis of sanctions evasion which is fueling terrorism, conflict, and misery from the Middle East to Ukraine,” U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey said.
The capture of the M Sophia, on the U.S. sanctions list for moving illicit cargos of oil from Russia, in the Caribbean was much less prolonged.
The ship had been “running dark,” not having transmitted location data since July. Tankers involved in smuggling often turn off their transponders or broadcast inaccurate data to hide their locations.
Samir Madani, co-founder of TankerTrackers.com, said his organization used satellite imagery and surface-level photos to document that at least 16 tankers had left the Venezuelan coast since Saturday, after the U.S. captured Maduro.
The M Sophia was among them, Madani said, citing a recent photo showing it in the waters near Jose Terminal, Venezuela’s main oil export hub.
Windward, a maritime intelligence firm that tracks such vessels, said in a briefing to reporters the M Sophia loaded at the terminal on Dec. 26 and was carrying about 1.8 million barrels of crude oil — a cargo that would be worth about $108 million at current price of about $60 a barrel.
The press office for Venezuela’s government did not immediately respond to an Associated Press request for comment on the seizures.
Lawless reported from London.
Fuel tanker trucks unload fuel at a gas station in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)
An oil pump jack stands unused in Cabimas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Edgar Frias)
A local walks past a mural featuring oil pumps and wells in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
A government supporter holds an image of President Nicolas Maduro during a women's march to demand his return in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026, three days after U.S. forces captured him and his wife. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
