Skip to main content

Wild, wild wave

Review by Vives Anunciacion
Inquirer Libre
May 12, 2006

Poseidon
Directed by Wolfgang Petersen
Written by Mark Protosevich
Based on the novel by Paul Gallico
Starring Josh Lucas, Kurt Russel
PG 13/ 99 minutes
Warner Brothers/ Virtual Studios

In its first 20 minutes, I had my hand over my mouth completely awestruck. Okay, maybe not completely, but surprised to be impressed. Poseidon, god of the seas, has edge-of-your-seat excitement to the last second. Hold your precious breath; this has water, water everywhere.

It’s actually a remake of the 1972 cult classic The Poseidon Adventure that started the disaster flick craze. When the trailer for Poseidon first came out earlier this year, I overheard people quickly dismiss it as another Titanic rip-off. Poseidon Adventure: 1972. Titanic: 1997. Kung ginawa bang pelikula ang MV Doña Paz tragedy, tatawagin pa rin bang Titanic iyon? In Poseidon, Wolfgang Petersen improves on and combines the tragedies of two of his previous waterborne films, Das Boot and The Perfect Storm.

The giant luxury cruise ship Poseidon is sailing the oceans on New Year’s Eve when a rogue 100-foot wave rams it on the starboard side and turns it upside down. Within moments, passengers and wreckage are tossed around and turned like a huge washing machine. Those who survive this nightmare consequently must ease their way out from burning debris or falling objects while the sinking ship gradually fills up with water.

The ship’s captain instructs many of the survivors to stay in the ship’s large ballroom, where they were previously gathered to celebrate the night. Some people simply can’t wait for things to just happen, and decide to take matters into their own hands. Eventually, eight strangers band together to save their own lives while the ship remains afloat – professional gambler Dylan (Josh Lucas), Robert (Kurt Russell), a former mayor vacationing with his daughter Jennifer (Emmy Rossum) and her fiancé Christian (Mike Vogel), retiring businessman Richard (Richard Dreyfuss), beautiful divorcee Maggie (Jacinda Barrett) and her son Conor (Jimmy Bennet), and stowaway Elena (Mia Maestro).

Their plan, according to the group’s reluctant leader Dylan, is to find their way up (or down, the ship is overturned) towards the ship’s propellers where they can jump overboard and escape the sinking ship. But each path they take would present a different obstacle they must hurdle, and as all disaster movies go, not all of them will make it alive in the end.

The main attraction of Poseidon is its dramatic staging of (incredibly believable) devastation. We’re talking about a bigger than Titanic, Queen Mary type ocean liner here, and I can only mouth, “holy ****” as soon as the giant wall of water appears onscreen, slams Poseidon big time and rolls the ship upside down. That sequence alone is a showstopper. After a short introduction to the mainly obligatory set of characters, Poseidon surges relentlessly with scene after scene of tension as Dylan and his group race towards the ship’s keel as the water swells behind them.

As for each of the survivors, there is no point in belaboring characterization here. Poseidon simply cuts away what would naturally drag the narrative slower. And so, a credible cast plus simplified characterizations are enough to push the story forward. In real life, we hear survivors narrate how a stranger saved them, or how an anonymous arm pulled them out of the water. It’s only afterwards when the survivors are interviewed that the tragedy gets a human face and a name.

Great effects and believable set-ups make for an engrossing adventure, it’s not surprising if an Oscar nomination for art direction came along. Fans of the original should be warned that this Poseidon is remarkably different.

Then again this review could all be wrong. I may have had an unnatural enthusiasm assessing Poseidon as a result of seeing the full trailer of Superman Returns. Ahh, Summer.

Comments

reel6thoughts said…
what i like about it is that the director and/or the writer didn't try to develop the role of the characters to the extent that the characters overshadow the story or the whole film.
2:22 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hairspray

(review in Filipino) (longer review in English at rvives.wordpress.com) Ang haba ng hair! Rebyu ni Vives Anunciacion Inquirer Libre November 11 2008 Direksiyon ni Bobby Garcia Music & Lyrics Marc Shaiman, Lyrics Scott Wittman Starring Michael de Mesa, Madel Ching Palabas hanggang December 7 sa Star Theater, CCP Complex Big, bright and beautiful ang local staging ng Atlantis Productions ng sikat na Broadway musical na Hairspray. Pero ang may pinakamahabang hair ay si Michael de Mesa na gumaganap na Edna Turnblad, ang big momma ng bida na si Tracy (Madel Ching). Traditionally, ang role ni Edna ay ginagampanan ng lalaki mula pa sa original na pelikula ni John Waters noong 1988 hanggang maging musical ito sa Broadway noong 1998 at maging musical movie last year kung saan si John Travolta ang gumanap sa role ni Edna. Set in Baltimore, Maryland in 1962, ang Hairspray ay tungkol sa mga pangarap ng malusog na teenager na si Tracy Turnblad na makasali sa paborito niyang teenage dance show s...
Post a Comment
Read more

For honor

Review by Vives Anunciacion Cinderella Man Directed by Ron Howard Written by Cliff Hollingsworth Starring Russell Crowe. Renee Zellweger, Paul Giamatti PG 13/ 144 minutes Universal Pictures/ Miramax Films Opens September 14 There’s a movie about a people’s champ that’s inspiring to see. It’s not Lisensyadong Kamao. Cinderella Man, starring former Roman Gladiator Russell Crowe is a rousing fairy tale if it is one. Jim Braddock (Russell Crowe) is a promising heavyweight boxer who is forced to retire early due to a disabling wrist injury. Out of work during in early years of the Great Depression, Braddock struggles every day to feed his young family. Temporary work in the local wharf restores his physical strength, but the pay isn’t enough to keep the kids warm in winter. Jim’s tough talking manager Joe Gould, passionately played by Paul Giamatti (from Sideways), enlists him for a one-time supporting bout, which Jim wins much to everyone’s surprise. The win earns Jim recognition from his ...
Post a Comment
Read more

War and remembrance

Review by Vives Anunciacion Inquirer Libre January 31 2005 A Very Long Engagement / Un long dimanche de fiançailles Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet Written by Jeunet & Guillaume Laurant Based on the novel by Sebastien Japrisot Starring Audrey Tautou, Gaspard Ulliel, Dominique Pinon R13/ 134 minutes Warner Independent Pictures With English subtitles Opens February 2 “Once upon a time there were five French soldiers who had gone off to war, because that’s the way of the world.” – Sebastien Japrisot, A Very Long Engagement January, 1917 at the height of World War 1: five French soldiers are condemned to march into no man’s land for shooting their own hands in their attempt to avoid going into the front lines against the Germans. The five – a farmer, a mechanic, a pimp, a carpenter and a young fisherman – are taken to the trenches in Somme between France and Germany. Their bodies are eventually recovered from the trenches. Years pass, and lonely Mathilde receives ...
2 comments
Read more