Seen: June 12tn, 2007
Format: HD-DVD
Rating: 4
Though I never actually saw it, I remember The Poseidon Adventure coming out when I was a kid. It had Shelly Winters and Ernest Borgnine in it and I had a hard time believing it could be any good if they were headlining an action picture.
A critic even in my youth.
This version probably isn't much better. While the ship had been updated, there's nothing else really new here. I should watch the original and compare them, but after seeing this one, that may be a chore I'm just not interested in.
The characters are some of the most cardboard I've seen in recent memory. This isn't the fault of the actors, they're just given almost nothing to work with. It's be easy to completely describe each character in twenty five words or less. Example: "Ex submariner turned professional gambler leading a detached, loner existence. A natural leader fearing failure and therefore commitment." Eighteen words. Done. There's nothing more to say. That's it. And he's the most well rounded character in the picture.
Performances are meh. With not much to go on, it'd take some really great actors to cover the lack of writing with their performances. These aren't them. And Jacinda Barret is here again. Someone explain her appeal to me, I just don't get it.
The effects here are great. There's some really cool shots of the boat flipping over. The exterior CG of the ship is very impressive. The interior shots of the flip are chaotic and severe. There's lots of innocents dying terrible deaths here. It's "real" that way, and a bit surprising. The film doesn't pull many punches in this portion, which sets up the rest in an interesting way.
The sets are pretty cool too. I was constantly aware and impressed by the upside down sets. They can't have been easy to design or build. They're very consistent and detailed. They really conveyed the unnerving aspect of the world turning literally upside down.
Remember those characters that were so shallow? Here's the good news. At this point the film turns into a horror-style thriller where the characters begin to get knocked off one by one. This is great because it means that is some cases we don't even need to sit through the full range of the character's possible cliche ridden existence. Some get stopped half way through or less. It's a serious relief.
It'd be easy to rate this a lot lower, but the effects and action stuff is actually pretty cool as are the sets. Everything else is just what you'd expect.
The Good: Simple and easy to follow.
The Bad: Cardboard characterization
The Ugly: Lots of terrible ways to die
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