I got a little misty when Batman said he couldn't remember his parents.

Empire of the Sun feels like a series of classic Spielberg tropes haphazardly cobbled together. The film suffers as a result, lacking cohesion in terms of plot, characterization, tone, and even general meaning. There are some undeniably great images in this movie, they just don't necessarily justify the movie as a whole.

(2nd viewing) Why did I give this an 86 ? I can't even begin to remember. Oversimplified and emotionally trite, this is one of the most disappointing war films I've seen (try watching Saving Private Ryan the same day and you'll understand). The film's tone changes so abruptly from the 1st to 2nd half, it's hard to figure out what Spielberg was going for. Bale is very good though his character is annoying. Watching him getting bitchslapped was the highlight of this film. Mushy Spielberg...

Bale is fantastic.

I love this movie, more from the perspective of, what would I do, if I were in his situation. Beautiful movie

About 10 accumulative minutes of very moving material. The rest tries hard, but is largely Spielberg's awe un-inspiring silence.

It's got some very emotional scenes towards the end, but the rest of the movie takes too much time regurgitating the same ideas (struggle and sacrifice in times of war) over and over. There's a reason this Spielberg film is often overlooked: it's just not as good as his other efforts. Bale did a pretty fantastic job, but he's sometimes annoying and I wished death upon his character.