Title: Poseidon (2006)
Directed By: Wolfgang Petersen
Written By: Mark Protosevich
Starring: Josh Lucas, Kurt Russell, Richard Dreyfuss, Emmy Rossum
Reviewed By Sarhan "Tsar" Rashid aka My Word
My first encounter with The Poseidon Adventure (the original 1972 original starring Gene Hackman and Ernest Borgnine) was purely out of coincidence. I was home alone one night with nothing to do. My only form of entertainment in those days was the idiot box and so here I was flipping channels until an image captured my imagination.
Id love to say it was a capsized cruise liner but instead it was a very attractive woman in a revealing (at that time) evening gown. Hey, I was a young boy with raging testosterones so dont shoot me that dirty look! What began as cheap thrill soon gripped me. I wanted to know what would happen to these characters, what obstacles would be thrown at them and how would they survive them.
I guess thats why my expectations for this remake werent all that high when I initially learnt it was going to be made.
I like the work of Wolfgang Petersen ("Outbreak", "Air Force One", "The Perfect Storm"). Hes what I like to call a balanced filmmaker. One who delivers a solid product for the studio and audiences alike. And he succeeds at it once again.
I dont blame him for the lackluster Troy. I think it suffered from having an ambitious story marred by a lack of an epic scope. The idea is again put to test here by writer Mark Protosevich ("The Cell") and surprisingly works pretty effectively.
One major grouse Ive read in many reviews has been the lack of exposition required for an audience to invest in these characters but I feel the opposite is true. We, the audience, arent spoon fed unnecessary details about these characters. Instead we're expected to connect the dots after a brief introduction to each one of the central characters. It's really not difficult to assume, for example, the kind of relationship Robert Ramsey (Kurt Russell) and his daughter Jennifer Ramsey (Emmy Rossum) share. Through the duration the screenwriter cleverly incorporates more details to help etch out each individual. It worked fine and helped keep the running from being excessively long.
Its not to say the movie is perfect in any shape or form. For a movie like this to truly grip a viewer it has to have its share of unexpected fatalities. I had hopes for it after the first character death but thereafter it became a pretty much a by-the-numbers affair. They had at ample opportunity for this but needless to say each time they decided to take the safer (and more predictable) route.
Besides a solitary jarring and poorly edited scene midway (probably to avoid a longer running time) the movie is technically efficient. The special effects and sets are first rate and the performers arent far behind. Although they dont get much to do other than go from an expression of worry to panic to worry again they each breathe life into their characters.
I still prefer the original but the remake isnt without its merits. It knows its target audience and caters to them without alienating other viewers. Sure it isn't sophisticated or offer anything we haven't seen in this genre but it provides good entertainment and isn't that what summer movies are about?
M:I:III might have officially launched the summer movie season but its Poseidon which does it in much more fitting fashion.
Official Website - http://www2.warnerbros.com/poseidon/z
IMDB The Poseidon Adventure Page - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069113/
IMDB Poseidon Page - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0409182/
Sounds pretty much what I expected from Petersen.
jk 
