WWII from Space

The strategy and battles of World War 2, as seen from space.

The basic premise of this documentary appealed to me: the battles of WW2 as seen from the air, reducing WW2 to a map. That should help to see the strategic and tactical side, right? Wrong. The 'from space' really means bad quality CGI ships and planes, largely seen from above. It's not original, nor done well.

Nothing about this film is done well, in fact. It is quite clumsy in its delivery, jumping around the WW2 timeline, jumping randomly between subjects and not going anywhere new. Very dumbed down: it's really only for people who know nothing about WW2, and even then it isn't too edifying.

We have the usual bunch of experts who seem more like cheerleaders than objective historians: every is the biggest or the greatest and every situation is the most crucial and dangerous.

Really nothing going for it. Avoid.

Absolutely amazing piece of work. I have watched this documentary twice, and I still think about it every so often. It gives a whole new perspective to the war as a whole. My second viewing was with my dad, who is a World War 2 buff, especially in Pacific knowledge, and he loved it. Now, admittedly, the documentary brushes over some finer details of certain battles (as I learned from my father), but it does not detract from the overall picture. For example, at the Battle of Midway the documentary glosses over the tactical details of how the Americans easily defeated the Japanese carriers (as my dad mentioned to me while watching). If you are a serious WW2 buff, you would know that and probably be upset. As guy from the Millennial generation getting a scope of the battle, it is not a big deal. You just have to remember that they are trying to fit in a 6 year war in 90 minutes.

I never really studied the war as a whole, with regards to how it affected global politics after the war was over, or why certain decisions were made with regards to geography, or how it affected politics locally in America. For example, before watching this I would have said "America dropped the atomic bomb on Japan solely because the Japanese were relentless and refused to surrender". Now? After watching this with some global geographic politics shown to the viewer? My answer is "America dropped the atomic bomb on Japan for two reasons, Japan was relentless and refused to surrender, and because they needed to prevent the Russians from defeating the Japanese". I realize my answer is quite overly simplified, and I can guarantee that there were 100 other reasons as well, but this global space map production really shows events in a whole new light that is hard to grasp from a high school text book.

Thanks to the power of technology, they really paint the global picture and educate the viewer very well. If I had to say, it was like watching Total Annihilation (PC Game), WW2 style. They use such cool sounds and graphics which really makes you feel like you are in a PC RTS game, no joke. For example, they use virtual maps with digital shading and digital lines to show movement and route plans and force positions, something that you certainly can't get from a textbook.

If you watch only one World War 2 documentary, I would suggest this one. The 90 minutes goes quick, they really take their time detailing the global scope of the war, and they cover things that include not only the battles themselves but the ancillary events that occurred to make the battle (or victory, or loss, or whatever it may have been) possible.

It sounds like a B Movie title but it's not. At least it's not supposed to be. It's a new way of looking at the events of WW II, offering a global perspective of land, territories and battles.

It's very USA-centric - guess who made it - and starts with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour which brings America into the war. Ok, let's go with that.

However, it skips backwards and forwards in time to look at various events of the war. This is annoying at best and is confusing. How much better if it had simply followed a linear path and let us see how the war developed as it played out.

Given the limitations of a movie's length, however, it is very much a potted history so there's nothing radically new or in depth here.

The view from space is a nice idea to help visualise the global scale of the conflict. However, often when dots flash up on a swiftly-rotating globe of the world to highlight cities and countries, far from illumination, they're simply blobs in a fog because some landmasses are obscured by cloud! As it's CGI-generated this is folly beyond redemption. Someone obviously thought it added a sense of realism but it simply detracts from the movie's admirable goal. Not all scenes are like this, just enough to spoil some of the movie's intent.

Essentially, it's just another WW II documentary. It has nothing new to add, it's very USA-dominated and it doesn't achieve what it sets out to do particularly well.

Glad to see that a few other reviewers have commented this is not WWII but USA's part of WWII.

I was so hoping to see the politcal plays that started the war on a 'from space' viewpoint. It literally starts at the bombing of Pearl Harbour.

It is a shoddy mix of interviews, poor CGI and just a mess of visuals with the all too annoying 'American Hero' voice over.

If you are American, you will probably enjoy it. If you are interested in WWII avoid it like the plague.

Horrible.

A friend of mine who is a World War Two history buff like myself texted me that this show was on and urged me to watch, so I found it and started. While I found the concept of tracing the progress of the War from space intriguing, inaccuracies from the very beginning quickly soured me on the show. The program opens with the attack on Pearl Harbor (neatly ignoring the fact that the War had been raging for over two years at that point). Initially I was impressed with the graphics, but I soon noticed several things that made no sense. Firstly, the scene showed a Japanese Zero fighter perform some sort of acrobatic maneuver and then release a bomb, the bomb that destroyed the battleship Arizona. In reality, it was a Japanese Kate torpedo bomber being used in a level bomber role that dropped the bomb. As the bomb fell, the smaller ship next to the Arizona came into view. However, instead of that other ship being the repair ship Vestal, the CGI image appeared to be a sort of scaled down battleship, complete with turrets. Moments later, as the narrator talked about the missed opportunity of catching the American carriers at Pearl, the CGI image that was supposed to be the Enterprise was instead that of a later Essex class carrier. With all of these inaccuracies hurting my brain in the first five minutes of the show, I snapped it off.

To some, the things I've pointed out might seem trivial to the telling of the overarching story of the Second World War. However, to me, if the producers had the budget to create such an elaborate show, there's no excuse to miss or leave out these details. If the creators of this documentary couldn't be bothered to get these details right, it tells me they didn't care enough. This show appeared to be less a labor of love for the creators and more of a cash grab to capitalize on the continuing popularity of World War Two. Could they not have hired a technical advisor to review those scenes and graphics before they were finalized?

While I realize that this show may have been aimed at younger viewers and a more general audience, rather than history buffs like myself, there's no reason not to get the basic facts right. The basic story of the war is well known and covered in many other documentaries. If you're going to produce a new show and the focus is going to be on using fancy CGI graphics, getting those graphics right would seem to be important. While many viewers might not notice these things, it's a show stopper for someone who actually knows a bit about the subject. I can't recommend this show.