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.