Review of Deepwater Horizon (2016) by 43In2014 — 26 Oct 2016
Related media: I had read some news articles and watched some news clips on the disaster.
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What's it like?: It's a disaster movie regarding the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform that is very close, in technical aspects, to the real incident. I think the director had tried to keep the extent of the explosions to what really happened, unlike in the third act of his earlier film, Lone Survivor.
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Pros:
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1) The technical aspects of how an offshore drilling platform operates and how the disaster unfolded seemed very realistic. But see Cons #1.
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2) The atmosphere was kept tense for the audience until the moment of the disaster, and during the disaster, it was a matter of disaster recovery. There was no dull moment for 95% of the film. See Cons # 2.
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3) Mechanical special effects, as opposed to CGI was used to show the explosion - quite a lot of money went to blowing up and burning a mock offshore platform - and the results are great.
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Cons:
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1) Unfortunately the detailed explanation of how the disaster occurred was inadequately done. I was confused as to what was happening to the bubbles, the cement, the drilling mud, the tests, etc. It could have been difficult to insert this explanation in without appearing like the poor job done in Interstellar with regards to how a wormhole allows you to travel faster than the speed of light. Perhaps it could have been a flashback to some training class about platform disasters.
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2) The last 5% of the film was post-climatic and was as if it was trying to engender the audiences' emotions. It could have been done better and with more details after the aftermath. Not a single clip of the oil spill (sans fire) was shown, as if some sponsor of the film had demanded that this not be shown so as not to anger the oil companies?
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How would the the different age groups rate it?
Children: Average.
Teens: Good.
Young adults: Good.
Medium age adults: Good.
Old adults: Good.
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Rating: 4/5 (no half scores). It is worth paying to watch it in the cinemas.
This review of Deepwater Horizon (2016) was written by 43In2014 on 26 Oct 2016.
Deepwater Horizon has generally received positive reviews.
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