I watched the 70's version of Midway a long time ago. That movie had the same problem as this one. How do you make a movie about an air battle without a bunch of airplanes to film? Their solution was using stock footage and not getting too much into the cockpit as I recall.
Frankly, the history on this version is better than I remember the 70's version having.
Neither movie emphasized the American problems of localizing the Japanese fleet enough for my taste. Having said that, if you can stomach the mildly cartoon-ish flavor of this one, this is the better movie.