POSEIDON (2006)

Wolfgang Petersen has been one of the most consistently effective directors in the film industry over the last 25 years. His movies are usually highly entertaining and almost always successful. With the exception of one awful effort thanks to the horrifyingly bad Tom Berenger thriller Shattered, his films range from being really good to spectacular. Das Boot is his masterpiece but he's also had some massive hits such as The Perfect Storm, Air Force One, and the huge Troy. He also helmed the children's classic The Neverending Story but his latest effort, the aquatic disaster movie remake Poseidon, is a world away from the fluffly realm of Fantasia. It's not of the typical quality we've come to expect from him. But that said, Wolfy still knows how to deliver great effects and action on a grand scale.
The first 15 minutes or so of Poseidon are bad. Real bad. The type of bad that makes you wonder if you should just walk out of the theatre and sneak into something else. It's all just putrid melodrama and poor character setup. It's filled with awful dialogue and atrocious acting. Richard Dreyfuss plays a heartbroken gay guy who is about to commit suicide when the boat gets turned upside down. Dreyfuss is usually excellent, but his role is poorly written and his performance is pathetic. For some strange reason Josh Lucas is the lead in this movie. To say that's a massive mistake would be an understatement. Lucas is a good actor and he's actually pretty good in this role, but Poseidon budget was reportedly about 160 million dollars. A mega budget disaster movie needs a mega star. Then it needs a mega supporting cast. What we have here is Josh Lucas carrying the film while Kurt Russell, Richard Dreyfuss, and Emmy Rossum do the rest. There are not many people out there that are going to go see a movie because Josh Lucas is in it. More people probably went to see it because Russell and Dreyfuss are in it. Hell, more people probably went to see it because Stacey Ferguson of the Black Eyed Peas is in it, and her performance is horrible by the way.

Once the wave finally hits though, the excitement starts to flow as the luxury cruise liner is turned upside down and becomes a floating cemetery complete with twisted corridors which form a maze of death that the characters must navigate to survive. They have to outrun the water that's starting to fill up the ship, avoid massive fires, and do just about everything else needed to survive a seriously damaged upturned ship. This stuff is where Wolfgang shines. There's some great action and excitement throughout the rest of the movie with some excellent effects and some truly fantastic sets. The fire sequences help to contrast between the icy cold sea water, adding another frightening element which is brought together with some excellent pyrotechnics.
What puts a bit of a damper on all the great effects and action is a lack of likeable characters. Disaster movies are very similar to slasher movies in that the audience sometimes finds itself rooting for characters to die. There are barely any likeable characters in Poseidon and I didn't care if anyone really survived. Josh Lucas, as I said, is good in the role, but he has a certain smugness that makes me want to punch him in the face at times, or in this case root for him to get burned alive. Lucas would be better served playing villains like he did with his superb performance in Undertow. Kurt Russell turned in a good performance but his part wasn't a big one and his character isn't a likeable one either. All the other characters are pretty bad or just bland and not worth mentioning.

So Poseidon is basically a big action and effects show that is technically sound but completely lacking in the human emotion category. It's not funny and the drama is lame. After the first 15 minutes it does sustain a good level of excitement throughout the rest of the movie and the action was just enough to tide (no pun intended) me over. Viewers looking for something with a little more emotional depth need to swim elsewhere.