Review of Poseidon (2006) by Alec M — 13 Nov 2009

When I first heard about Wolfgang Petersen was re-imagining Paul Gallico's The Poseidon Adventure, let me tell you at first I wasn't too pleased. I thought this was going to be another shallow and brainless Disaster film with amazing visuals and nothing much else to hold it up. Boy was I wrong. What I got was a smart, extremely intense,edgy and highly entertaining film with all it's pieces of the puzzle in the right place and not a single one missing, while I like Wolfgang Petersen(director of In the line of Fire, The Perfect Storm and Troy.) I didn't think he could properly bring such a compelling and thrilling story to the screen but with some luck and ILM to back him up he did it.

what I really liked about Poseidon was that it took a used story and turned it into something more, much more. And that is say something in the movie business where disaster films are a dime a dozen but a good disaster film is a one in a million. And here it is.

Josh Lucas gives off some great energy in this as the gritty,smart and loner hero who has to take charge to lead the small band of survivors to safety. Lucas plays the part with ease and style but while his hero can't measure up to Gene Hackman's he does give the role more grit and heart than what would really need be needed in a film of this caliber. But never the less he gives us a good show for our money. Kurt Russell is not as good here as he has been in the past, but he does have his moments where he really shines above the rest as the second in command to Lucas. But Russell is almost the standout here by his ties as a father in this film, which in some scenes have him making very uneasy choices that are motivated by his duty to his child and there he shines above the rest in almost all his scenes. Emmy Rossum is much better than she was in TDAT, she's not anywhere closer to being great or even better than her previous works but she does do much, much better than she has in the past and that is something to admire. Richard Dreyfuss is not as good here as he was in say.. Jaws(1976) or The American President(1996) but he does great as the kind hearted old man and delivers some good scenes in the film. But none the less the cast holds up very nicely under a poor script and with excellent direction from Petersen they soar.

Wolfgang Petersen's Poseidon is The Towering Inferno of disaster films, It just has water. This film delivers a powerful and moving experience that is common in disaster films but never quite like this, this time around it's more intense and character driven and that makes it one of the best and the brightest to hit the genre in years. All in all Poseidon is one adventure you want to be apart of.