In 1987 Steven Spielberg's "Empire of the Sun" opened to mixed reviews and disappointing box office returns. But the film's reputation has grown with time, and it's now rightfully considered an underrated Spielberg classic. "Empire of the Sun" tells the true story of Jim Ballard, an English boy who's separated from his parents in China during World War II. Featuring an excellent performance from the young Christian Bale, "Empire of the Sun" is an emotional and visually striking drama about loss, family, and the horror of war. Spielberg also uses Ballard's story to address thought-provoking questions about social privilege, militarism, and the lengths that humans will go to in order to survive. Spielberg doesn't provide easy answers to these questions, making this one of his more mature and contemplative works.

Having seen "Empire of the Sun" multiple times, I've grown to deeply appreciate it as both a sweeping historical epic and a powerful tale of a traumatic childhood. The movie isn't perfect - at two and a half hours it's too long. The second act in particular drags and this causes the movie to lose much of its dramatic momentum halfway through. But despite its length "Empire of the Sun" does more than enough to maintain your interest with compelling performances, amazing visuals, and of course John Williams' award winning score. 8/10.

Empire of the Sun is masterfully directed, cinematography, music and acting are phenomenal! So nice to see young Christian Bale in this whirlwind of adventurous war drama. A captivating piece of cinema that is thrilling entertainment throughout about the brits and Japanese. John Malkovich is one of the best actors ever; so is Joe Panatolio I appreciate any project they're in. Steven Spielberg can't make a bad movie in my opinion, I want to own more of them.

Like so many of Steven Spielberg's films, this one received a butt-load of Oscar nominations--but no wins ("Empire of the Sun" was nominated for six technical awards).

The movie begins with a VERY young Christian Bale playing a bratty and rather annoying child of British nationals living very well in war-torn China just before the British and Americans were pulled into this war. Like too many westerners, his family seemed to care very little about the war or the Chinese people so it feels a bit like karma when the war does come and the child is separated from his parents when Shanghai is invaded. For the rest of the film, the child grows up a scrounger--eking out a survival in a Japanese-run internment camp. Life is miserable and the film VERY episodic--as it jumps very quickly from December, 1941 to 1945--with nothing in-between.

While the film has many glowing reviews, I couldn't help but feel extremely disconnected from the movie. Part of it, as I mentioned above, is the episodic quality of the film. Part of it is because Christian Bale's character is amazingly tough to like. Initially, he's a really annoying kid. Later, he's not as bad but with the ENTIRE film resting on young Bale's shoulders, it just becomes tedious. In fact, this VERY slow pacing is the biggest problem with the film, as about 30 minutes could have been sliced out of it OR they could have developed more of the adult characters. Regardless, I really couldn't wait for this technically astounding but very dull film to end.