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Poseidon is an average disaster movie. There’s no other way around it. It would be better than average if it didn’t have so much to compare it to. Poseidon is based on a popular novel (not a remake of The Poseidon Adventure as everyone thinks, but just another film based on the same book) and the novel has been made into three separate movies (four if you include the sequel to the original film). The true “remake” would have to go to the made-for-TV movie released last year that even retains the original’s title. I preferred this story, personally, when it was called Titanic—after all, can they really make another cruise-ship-sinking disaster movie again?
The original Poseidon Adventure is a classic film that inspired the disaster film genre, and it’s understandable that a company would try to revisit it. It’s a great film with some great performances. Poseidon, in its own right, has some great performances as well and a fantastic director to helm the picture. It’s not real clear where the movie goes wrong. I guess the real failing is that the film is too mediocre for its own good. Is the audience too familiar with this genre to be surprised by anything in this film? My thoughts are that they didn’t even try to show us something we haven’t seen before, so of course we come out of the theatre with mixed feelings on the movie.
Poseidon is about a cruise ship that gets flipped upside down by a rogue wave and several passengers who band together to climb through the carnage to escape through the hull of the ship to be rescued. What’s nice about this film is that there’s no one star driving the picture forward. We get a chance to see some great actors who normally headline their own films, and they all do a great job with the little characters they have to work with. (The character development this time around is paper thin.) Josh Lucas and Kurt Russell are always entertaining, and you won’t be disappointed with them. Richard Dreyfuss does a fantastic job with his role, probably the best in a cast of fun performances. Kevin Dillon has a blowout scene he nails perfectly, and Freddy Rodriguez has the most frightening death scene an actor can hope for. The rest of the cast, unfortunately, are incredibly forgettable or fall into the they’re-so-annoying-I-hope-they-die-next category.
Wolfgang Peterson is a strong and capable director. This is probably the main reason why I can’t nail down exactly why this film isn’t as successful as his previous films
(Troy aside, he makes good films). Poseidon is reminiscent of his work in Air Force
One, but while watching it you wish that it was more like his work in Das Boot. Das Boot was so intimate and gripping, whereas Air Force One was good but too sterilized through the Hollywood machine. The major set pieces are pretty impressive, much more so than the original film, although arguably, this is the only area better than the original.
One final, quick note about the screenplay: I hate it when people are fighting the elements to stay alive and one character states emphatically, “It’s the only way!” Apparently, there’s only one way to live but a hundred different ways to die.
