Poseidon

Cast: Kurt Russell, Josh Lucas, Jacinda Barrett, Richard Dreyfuss, Emmy Rossum and Jimmy Bennett.

Director: Wolfgang Peterson

Release Date: 2006

Running Time: 1hr 34 minutes

Genre: Adventure

Rating: PG-13

Format: Amazon Prime UK

Synopsis:

The luxurious ocean liner Poseidon capsizes on New Years Eve, after being swamped by a rogue wave. Those left alive, must fight for the lives as they attempt to escape the sunken ship. 

Based on the book of the same name by Paul Gallico. Adapting a book to film can be quite the challenge, more so when it's a remake. How many remakes can you do before your audience gets really bored? Modernizing it doesn't necessarily make it better either. It's New Years Eve and everyone on board is celebrating in full force, when a tsunami sized wave hits the ship, capsizing it! The thought of a massive ship capsizing is pretty haunting! On board are passengers, Mayor of New York City Robert (Russell) is on board with his daughter Jennifer (Rossum) and her fiance Christian (Vogel), Robert isn't happy with the idea of his little girl getting married, forcing him to be more then a bit protective with her. Also on board are single mother Maggie and her little boy Connor, stowaway Elena, gay architect Richard Nelson (Dreyfuss), waiter Marco and drunken gambler Lucky Larry.

Kurt Russel is a very well respected actor, however over the past couple of years, the films he's starred in haven't quite lived up to that expectation. This is one of them. Russell's performance sadly isn't one of his best, although ironically he has one of the strongest performances in the film. The relationship he shares with his daughter is very broken, it is not known where her mother is, or whether she is alive. His daughter Jennifer wants a life of her own, to settle down. Rossum's performance isn't fantastic, there is absolute zero chemistry between her and Mike Vogel who plays her fiance Christian. A strong performance however does come from child actor Jimmy Bennett who plays Connor, Bennett delivers a very impressive performance. Richard Dreyfuss is an actor most are probably familiar with when he starred in the hit movie "Jaws", Dreyfuss plays architect Richard Nelson, recently split up with his boyfriend, Nelson hopes to make things better before the New Year, however the love is not returned. Nelson's only power now is to get off the ship!

The original storyline itself is not at fault, but more so the screenplay, written by Mark Prosevitch. As I mentioned before modernizing an old story does not always go down well. Although it hasn't been modernized too much, it sadly does not have the same excitement that the original movie had. The characters aren't as strong, there was a fair amount of tension between the characters in the original film, although each character in the remake appears to come from some sort of broken background, it sadly doesn't quite work the same. The storyline also feels very rushed, we're introduced to the action a little too soon, preventing audiences from understanding characters and their motives.

Ironically the special effects in the original film (1972) looked far more impressive, with a film that is only eleven years old, it really is quite a disappointment. The cinematography itself really isn't too bad, however due to poor special effects, it doesn't look it's best. The underwater scenes looking the most impressive. The production design is very good and works well, the actors work well with that they've got too. Unfortunately each scene doesn't look particularly well shot, the actors don't always look good in frame. Due to poor filming, a few scenes look rather messy, unfortunately leading to no suspense or excitement. Given the storyline, it's really very disappointing and sadly does not live up to the expectations of the original movie. The score however does work well with the storyline and the scenes in which they are used. Only a few people survive, the fight for survival is very high, the score has quite a heroic feel to it. This is not the end for them!

Sadly, nowhere near as good as the first and certainly not one of the best remakes produced.

3/5 stars