Review of In the Heart of the Sea (2015) by Matthew F. J — 15 Jan 2016

Although technically quite well directed, Ron Howard isn't a lightweight in the film business, the film is a little bit of a disappointment especially after his high octane and really fascinating film: Rush from 2013.

This new film is suffering from a very casual scenario with little surprises and an avalanche of C.G.I that completely kills the magic of the film. Some scenes are beautiful and the exterior natural sets are greatly photographed but overall the film looks and feels dated, like the type of films they used to make with Charlton Heston a while back.

The cast is not tremendously engaging but here and there we have a few scenes that make our leads engaging and we soon feel emotionally attached to them, which is surprising, given the type of material they have to work with, scenes after scenes.

Technically the film remain quite solid but I can't understand how Hollywood manages to endlessly repeat itself and give us the same classical scenarios films after films. Nothing in this new 'updated' version of Moby-Dick feels really new and the fact they chose to treat it like an origin story makes it even worse.

Seriously guys the story of Moby-Dick is amazing, why not simply modernize it for our current generation instead of delivering a period film, half cooked , half raw. It's not a bad film, but it's certainly not a great one either.

I doubt it will be remembered by next year.