Poseidon

I just got back from watching Mission Impossible 3. What? The title above do not match? Of course since I will not be talking about Mission Impossible. Anyhow just to add in my 1 cent worth, Mission Impossible is a good action flick. Great action, and all the showmanship of technology and Tom Cruise still rock as Ethan Hunt, also his wrinkles kinda suit him. Wink. Dunno if a gal around my age who now think wrinkles for guy looks becoming, is either showing a sign of maturity or it is just sad.However I do wish I get to see Jonathan Rhys Meyer to have more action. His crooked smile is cute.

Anyhow, last Friday night I got an itch to see Poseidon.

So I asked my friends who's readily available and one of my friend agreed out of boredom. I had always love the 1972 The Poseidon Adventure. I am not necessarily a fan of old movies, but this one I like. So when I heard they were gonna do a remake of the movie, I felt thrilled. I am not like some of those pessimist who think any remake is a bad idea. I like remake. I can make comparison and see how they can improvise. The Poseidon Adventure was or is hailed as one of the first disaster flick movies which spurred Hollywood into a disaster movie making frenzy. I remembered watching the movie when I was 10 and was awed. And who can forget Shelley Winters performance as Bell Rosen. Sigh.

So I went to see the movie without high expectation. That doesn't sound right. Well, I just wanted to enjoy myself and I know its gonna be not bad.

For the clueless, the Poseidon Adventure 1972 was basically about a luxury cruise ship which is celebrating New Year Eve. During the partying and celebration , came a rogue wave which overturned the ship. The ship was then upside down. The celebration is held at the hall which is the at the top of the ship. So now, most of the peoples are stuck at the bottom after the ship overturned. Then came a reverend, which are concerned for their safety, (cause you know.. it is never a good idea to stay so long without any clue on the bottom of an upturned boat)asked for the survivors in the hall to join him to go up to safety. Where he can see the stars and be reassured by it (I made that last sentence up, but the main point was he want to get up there on the bottom?hull? of the boat to get help). This was met in doubt and some protest by the already dazed and many injured passengers. The captain assured them that they would be safe staying where they are, and thats as good enough to them. However a few survivors, heed the reverend advice and went up clamoring to safety. Thus then came the Poseidon adventure where they must make their way up against the flooding of sea waters, fire, and wreckage.

In the new movie; Poseidon, it is basically the same thing. New Year celebration, rogue wave, ship overturned, only a handful of survivors went up to safety to get help. The main difference here is instead of the goody reverend who is determined to save them all which act like a leader to the group of survivors, this Poseidon picture have Josh Lucas as a reluctant leader , which are forced to lead the few survivors who are also not convinced the boat is safe anymore. We got the same plot, but different characters.

What I think about it? As many people says, there are no character development. There is little time for us to familiarize with the characters.Thus we do not get attached to the character, so when they died, its kinda like we were thinking, "Ok. One died. Moving on..,". Somehow it did not manage to tap into the human tragedy of it as what Titanic had done. However for us to really get familiarize with the almost a dozen characters can be a tad bit hard to achieve in so lil time, so I guess those who are looking for a good cry, can go somewhere else to get their fix.

But the script. Oh. Dear. God. Was horrendous. It is kinda painful to see good actors and actresses actually saying this kinda,sometimes corny line. I think Kurt Russell was right and probably knew the script was really bad, when he said jokingly before the premiere that Poseidon should be made into a silent movie for people to appreciate it. The character is saying all the wrong thing at the wrong time. But I love Kurt Russell character though as Robert Ramsey. He looks so.. sad at times. Josh Lucas did an OK job too, but I don't see the bad rogue turn moralistic ethically conscience transition. Its kinda like, he was a good person from the start and have problems trying to show the bad side of him.

I got all the bad thing aside. Now , in term of suspense and action packed. You want an action flick. This is the one you should go. The wave came pretty early in the movie. And it is from then just non stop until the end. You got all of the flooding of waters you want. People getting fried. You also get jumping around and wreckage of ship being flung down, fire, flash fire. You are hooked to your seat (Not there is anywhere to go since I had paid for the ticket) and sometimes gripping to your seat to watch how they get through the obstacles one by one.

As for the special effect.. well the wave one.. its not exactly The Perfect Storm material. But it was OK enough of a job. I do love the part when it showed just when the wave crashed into the ship. The wrecking of the ship is being done spectacularly. And lots and lots of bodies lying around in a grotesque manner.

I don't particularly like it when they are showing around the ship just right when the movie started. The exterior shot of the ship shown is lovely, but look just too ... computer generated I should say. Not much interior shot tho. The camera go round and round. It make me dizzy. But it should be a great to see it in IMAX since all the fire and underwater scenes can thus be truly appreciated.

As far as comparison goes, I can't say if the The Poseidon Adventure 1972 was better than what Wolfgang Petersen direct. It wouldn't be fair to compare it to since the storyline of the characters are different, but since it is somewhat like a remake, we tend to compare it for those who loved the old movie. There are its pro and cons. The Poseidon Adventure strong point is Shelley Winters. Heh. But Poseidon stand on its own too. It would be a good movie to watch again. But not the one you reminiscence fondly of.

If I were to give it a rating, I will gave it 3 out of 5. For all of the good old action packed adventure it gave you non stop.