The Pacific

The story doesn't feel coherent as it jumps from one character to another. The only director who has any skill in directing action scenes is Tony To, who's episode Peleliu Airfield is leaps and bounds above the rest. Every other action sequence is a mess of poorly edited insert shots. Still The Pacific manages to capture how unbelievably dreadful the Marine campaign against the Japanese was in WWII, though it's a pity it wasn't done with more competence. Definitely not Band of Brothers quality.

While nothing could live up to the original Band of Brothers, this is still a remarkable tale about a much different part of the war. My grandfather was a marine, one of the first boats unloaded onto Guadalcanal so it was particularly fascinating in that regard.

A major step down from 'Band of Brothers' for one simple, yet large, reason: it tries to do too much. Attempting to follow three different viewpoints in the Pacific Theater only weakens the bond we should be having with these characters, for it is impossible to fully understand the motives and underpinnings of their psychology. It fails at generating any empathy or moral complexity of any kind, both of which made BoB such a stunning work of art, but it can still amaze with its authenticity.

Yes, Band of Brothers was way better.

Compelling imagery and setting but my god, the dialogue and character development are painfully awful.

Like others have said, it's not quite as good as Band of Brothers, but still a gripping and well-made mini. Most of the characters were disposable, but I enjoyed Basilone's arc until the writer shit the bed in the Iwo Jima episode. Sledgehammer's arc was easily my favourite and the three Peleliu episodes are far and away the best in the series.

Big disappointment. The director had absolutely no clue what was going on. It's a mess of soldiers in a jungle or camp with occasionally some Japanese attacking. Now and then they throw some creepy animals in front of the camera (snakes or rats) to show it was really hard out there. The actors look like they couldn't be bothered to get out of their trailer and do some real acting on the set. Watching this I didn't have any empathy for the characters and couldn't care less if they survive or not.

Overall, it's alright. The Peleliu airfield is probably the best directed sequence of the entire series, and the Sledge portions have some really good character development. The showering during the surprise 10 second rainstorm shot reminded me a lot of The Thin Red Line. Outside of that, though, it's really very average and forgettable. It pretends at being meditative and emotional and there is more entertainment to be found in the cheesy WW2 action flicks of the 70s.

Pretty good but it shows a lack of really good ideas, a lack of connective tissue between episodes that made Band of Brothers so unforgettable and a lack of truly leading-leading actors. The best story ideas, like the officer returning to the USA to become a posterboy for the war, are dropped carelessly, but the most mundane are magnified. It's not a sum of its (good) machinations so the weakness has to be sought higher up: i think the showrunners had an unfinished vision and we experience it.

Another truly amazing series. Its very much like Band of Brothers, they use the same formula and execute it to perfection.

best ww2 series I know

It's narrative is far too disjointed, and it takes on too much scope. As times I found myself sitting there wondering, "And who was this character again? He looks familiar..."

Inherits a dulled level of sentiment but also the (some how) extended title sequence from Band of Brothers. We get a much bleaker depiction of the war here than BoB, there's no champagne in the Eagles Nest, rather death, mud and Malek's nihilist Southerner character commentating on the state of play. Woof.

Its no 'Band of Brothers' and it lacks some needed coherency but its still an incredible mini-series. All the acting is wonderful and their characters development equally as good. The camera work makes it hard to look away as almost everything is shot with such finesse. Also worth noting is that on blu-ray this absolutely gorgeous.

Brutal fighting. Not as character driven as Band of Brothers, but was meant to showcase a different aspect of the war.

I originally went into this a few years ago expecting a Band of Brothers cloning. That's not a good way to go into anything you are going to watch. And to that end, while it was good, I was a tad disappointed in it. Fast forward many years and a re-visit has me liking it more than BoB. I had heard about some of the fabrication by Ambrose on BoB, something he was well know for in his writing. In this series, you get the perspective from actual soldiers, not an author trying to sell more books.

I was first overcome by the horrors of war, but eventually the cheesiness was far, far worse.

Wow. Just incredibly well done all around. Powerful. Emotional. Just a great piece of story telling about real lives and real stories.

I haven't seen Band of Brothers yet but judging from all the mini-reviews saying The Pacific is a large step down I must say I have extremely high expectations for it because I found the Pacific to be excellent.

The script so poor and superficial, assumes to give sub stories but terribly unsuccesful (repetitively) in doing so, Pacific is a total waste of work and money. The score hence should have been much lover, but that is for the production effort only. Tom Hanks really should stop this war mania.

Really only gets points for the sheer quality of the production. Story-wise, it's a disjointed mess. Where it does work is in its portrayal of the hellish conditions of the Pacific war. If each episode is viewed as a pseudo-documentary of the particular battle it covers, then the series really works. Just don't expect any kind of emotional attachment to characters or an overarching story.

Only one episode was bad and all the others were good if not great. The development of Sledge's character was particularly remarkable, I loved his character transformation. My only complaints are Hanks narrating, the CGI wasn't good, and some of the night time fighting scenes were poorly done. It's not Band of Brothers quality but this is still well worth your time. And if nothing else, this is just a reminder of why everyone should never stop kissing America's ass.

Pretty good but it was no band of brother which was awesome.

Good series.

There is great elements and the whole series oozes with quality, but war films is not me and nine hours of repetetive slaughering is insanely boring.

Uneven. Some great bits, like Peleliu, but overall it's never comes near the brilliance of its predecessor Band of Brothers.

wow, just wish there where more episodes for story about others like sledge in australia, also how he completely changed in script was weird

Over-blown and disorganized. I say this a dedicated fan of "Band of Brothers", no HBO Miniseries has disappointed me more despite the craft and dedication put into the effort.

Only worth it for the incredible depiction of the battles.

Took me three attempts in over a decade, but I finally ploughed through it. My resistance was probably because the first few episodes are either dizzyingly confusing or suicidally boring (ep. 3), with too much lingering on dull, poorly-presented romantic downtime scenes. Battles often look distractingly cheap, and you never remember who most of the marines are anyway. Things do pick up in the 2nd half of the series and it shows some heart towards the end, but it aint a patch on Band of Brothers.

Dramatic and tragic. A good place to invest ten hours of a free time.

This will need repeat viewings to properly settle in my mind. I will say it's less gripping than Band of Brothers was on first watch

"Succeeds in giving a vivid impression of the nature of this theater's combat, creating a venue for both powerful emotions and thoughtful consideration of provocative questions..."