Poseidon

Starring: Josh Lucas, Kurt Russell, Jacinda Barrett, Richard Dreyfuss, Emmy Rossum & more
Directed by: Wolfgang Petersen
My rating: Painless

I had pretty low expectations heading into this movie. But being that I do like to see wham-bang special effects and I've also enjoyed Peterson's other work (Troy, Perfect Storm) I headed off to see this overhyped movie. I should also say that the original movie, The Poseidon Adventure, is my all-time favorite disaster film and I would give it my highest rating. Still, it lacks the technology available to movie makers today and was more about the acting.

This is a very fun movie. Well worth my matinee price and different enough from the original that I can recommend it. The acting is spotty at times - Matt Dillion almost ruins the movie - but by the end I was invested in all the characters that hadn't died. The underwater scenes are intense enough that I felt like I was drowning. The actual ship disaster looks pretty damn good and when it initially happened I looked over to my husband and he gave me two thumbs up. I agree. The explosions look great and the sound in our theater was amazing. I will admit that at times some of the CGI effects were a little too fake. For example, people being swept away by some of the large waves were painfully and obviously digitally inserted. Those scenes were very fast however and they didn't bother me as much as I thought they would.

Conclusion? This is an above average summer blockbuster movie. I don't think it's for everyone but if you are a fan of disaster films then I highly recommend you head out to the big screen to see it.