Yawn!
 Aug 21st, 2006
Advantages:
A couple of scenes with good tension .
Disadvantages:
Hollywood turkey . C . G . I ride . Bland actors . Boring . Clichéd .
Recommendable:
No
Detailed rating:
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Characters / Performances
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  gantzgraf
About me:
Cinema, avant-garde music, reading, philosophy, science and arts are my life. I work from home, and ...
Member since:10.08.2006
Reviews:54
Members who trust:26
Review rated by 22 Ciao members on average: very helpful 
Poseidon was released sometime in May 2006 and was directed by Wolfgang Petersen, the same guy who directed The Perfect Storm (2000), Das Boot (1981) and most notably, the Never-ending Story (1984). It is the remake of the 1972 classic, The Poseidon Adventure. When the Americans are not busy spoiling foreign films by remaking them, such as Ringu (Hideo Nakata, 1998) for example, they release huge 150-160 million budget films, all sketched in the same manner, just in order to please the casual viewer.
Sometimes, big budgets can produce some great material... but nine times out of ten, it results in a turkey.
Poseidon is one of those turkeys.
It is not as bad as James Cameron's Titanic, but it comes close... The first thing that struck me was the blandness of Klaus Badelt's soundtrack. Here, we are far from a subtle Jerry Goldsmith suite or an incredible John Williams orchestration. Badelt manages to put the whole cinematic concept into music by simply overusing his heroic theme and, as a matter of fact, all his other themes.
The characters are typical of your American big-budget movie too:
- The complicated "father + daughter + her boyfriend" squabble, that lasts throughout the entire movie.
- The intoxicated idiot that seems to do more harm than good.
- The thick-set hero, handsome and fiercely traditional.
- The terrified good-looking women that mutate, after some time, into heroic femme fatale-like and strong-minded individuals.
- The Hollywood kid, that never dies... ect.
You get the picture. The other major problem in Poseidon lies in it's pitiable layout of the mandatory "emotional sequences". In one scene (this is not a spoiler), a huge accident occurs, resulting in someone's death; the lead female actress seems to think that this is the perfect time to settle a private matter with her father... it's rather pathetic.
The cinematography is very feeble, only relying on how good the water will look when it crashes into a room, or how sexy the female actress will appear when bathed in sweat and coloured in blue sparks of electricity. Some scenes do not make much sense.
At one point, a massive lift comes crashing down, after slowly dislocating itself inch by inch and, narrowly missing one of the characters, it collides with the bottom end of the shaft... resulting in a gigantic C.G.I explosion.
Why ?! Were there any gas bottles stored under the shaft floor?
Only Wolfgang Petersen knows...
There are some good moments, halfway through the film, in which the characters must take advantage of the rising water in effort to progress (without spoiling anything). I though that those scenes were pretty well executed, claustrophobic, and rather scary.
However, it would be fair to point out that Poseidon does feature a completely unrealistic element: that of breathing under water for a couple of minutes, which most people cannot do. This was a characteristic that also affected the infamous Alien: Resurrection (Jean-Pierre Jeunet). I should point out that the sequence in which the giant wave crashes against the Poseidon ship, the moment every popcorn-muncher is waiting for, is very impressive.
That being said, "impressive effects" are the backbone to a movie; Poseidon makes these effects the forefront.
All in all, I would qualify Poseidon as a pretentious, bland, C.G.I ridden, celebrity starring, uninspired film. There again, that was exactly what I was expecting. If you like this kind of movie, then you can ignore my comments and enjoy it.
Otherwise, there are plenty of other films out there to get your hands on...
* (Written by myself - no violation, no lifting, no breach of copyright)
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![Poseidon [DVD] [2006]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78462323.jpg)
by (5%):
06.08.2008 18:44
didn't you like this i thought this film was amazing oh well we can't all like the same fill.
03.04.2008 14:44
Hubby liked this one I wasn't that keen.
02.04.2008 20:00
Well reviewed, seems it is one to avoid.