Plot: What’s it about?
“Poseidon” kicked off the 2006 movie season late this Spring and, pun fully intended, sank at the box office. Well, most movies that make $60 million can’t be called complete flops, consider the fact that the budget was $160 million. I’m sure some heads were rolling at Warner when the numbers came in. And here we are, not even 90 days later and the first “big” movie of the Summer is already on DVD. A sign of the times, perhaps? Nevertheless, “Poseidon” was the remake of the 1972 classic “The Poseidon Adventure”, a far more compelling movie with a better cast and characters that we really cared about. The main complaint with this remake, well there were two actually, was “Does it need to be remade?” and the running time of the movie was a scant 98 minutes. There’s an old saying that goes “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Try telling that to the studio executives out on the left coast. Every major movie is either a sequel, adapted from a comic book or is a remake these days. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but there’s got to be more to making movies than special effects. All that aside, I will say that Wolfgang Petersen has had great success with movies about the ocean. “Das Boot” and “The Perfect Storm” are two great movies that show the wrath of the sea. Could he score a hat trick with “Poseidon”?
“Poseidon” goes on the assumption that you have seen the original and are just here for the visual part of the movie. Ok, that’s fine with me. I like mindless action. No sooner do the opening credits roll than we’re hit with the film’s money shot. Yep, a huge wave comes out of the middle of the sea, flips the boat upside down and all of the sudden we’ve got a small group of passengers trying to make their way to the sea above. Naturally there has to be some conflict and so it goes. Robert Ramsey (Kurt Russell) is an ex-fireman and his daughter, Jennifer (Emmy Rossum) is trying to work up the nerve to tell her father about her engagement to Christian (Mike Vogel). Robert doesn’t want to hear of it and there you have it…tension. Naturally we’ve got a rebel who prefers to work alone in Dylan (Josh Lucas) and an eccentric in Richard Nelson (Richard Dreyfuss). Throw in a few others and now you’ve got something to work with. As one might imagine, they lose a few along the way and as Robert reluctantly accepts his daughter’s love for Christian, things might as well be resolved. Is anyone else in the boat safe or is it just these half dozen folks? We don’t really know and the filmmakers don’t really want us to.
I’m a fan of short movies and a fan of long movies and when I think of a boat upside down in the ocean, I think of “Titanic” – perhaps this movie’s antithesis. “Titanic” had a great plot, characters you could actually know and care about and it’s what made the movie worthwhile. The same goes for “The Perfect Storm”. “Poseidon” has two-dimensional characters that spew out the same clichéd phrases and you can essentially tell who will make it out alive and who won’t. And if you can’t, it’s awfully reminiscent of another mindless action movie: “Armageddon”. Now with all of my bitter remarks, you’d think that I hated “Poseidon” and I really didn’t. There are far worse movies out there and the soundtrack alone might be reason enough to give this a rental, just don’t expect to be mentally challenged when it comes to figuring out who goes next or what will happen in the end.
Video: How does it look?
This two disc version of “Poseidon” has the movie and the trailer on the first disc and the rest of the supplements on the second disc (though there is one featurette on the first disc as well). I mention this because the movie isn’t that long and the transfer should have plenty of room to maximize the DVD and provide us with a great picture. It should, right? Well, I was a bit disappointed by the way this looked. Granted, a majority of the movie is shown under water and in darkly-lit scenes, which is no easy task for a DVD but it’s a big budget Hollywood movie – certainly every effort was extended for the transfer? The 2.35:1 anamorphic image appears a bit murky at times and I even caught a few instances of some artifacting and pixellation. Granted, this wasn’t bad but I was expecting a lot more from a DVD of this caliber. Flesh tones seemed warm and natural the detail is sharp too. This isn’t a bad transfer, but I was expecting something a bit more. I was informed that Warner is working on an HD-DVD version of this movie, however it won’t be out until December. When we get a copy of that, I’ll do a comparison to see how that one stacks up with this one.
Audio: How does it sound?
The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is something that this movie does deliver and one of the better instances of surround sound is when the ship gets hit by the wave. The LFE is off the scale at that moment in time, all channels are spewing forth all they have to offer and you feel like you’re right in the middle of it. Along the way, there are plenty of explosions and little things here and there that make the soundtrack one of the more active out there. Dialogue is clean and natural. I’ve complained enough, the audio is an area where this movie excels and it alone is worth the price of admission.
Supplements: What are the extras?
“Poseidon” is available in a widescreen version and this, a more robust editon with some additional supplements. The first disc contains the movie, the theatrical trailer and a featurette: “Poseidon: A Ship on a Soundstage: The Complexities of Making a Modern Adventure Movie” which is a long-winded way of saying “this movie cost a lot to make, here’s how we did it”. Ok, not really but what we do get is some behind the scenes information and some interviews with the cast and crew. Pretty standard stuff. If you wanted the more robust edition (and who doesn’t), here’s what you get on the second disc. “Poseidon: Upside Down: A Unique Set Design Chronicle” which showcases how the majority of the movie was filmed (bear in mind they were walking on the “ceiling” as the ship was upside down in the water. This showcases that feat and tells us some things we should know. Next is “A Shipmate’s Diary: A Film School Intern’s Experiences on the Set”. Now this is a bit more interesting as we have someone ripe from film school and he’s on the set of arguably one of the biggest movies of the year. How will he react? Tune in and find out! Lastly, there’s a pretty informative documentary from the History Channel about rogue waves. Evidently there are a lot more out there than we thought and this well-made documentary gives us all we need to know and more aobut this phenomenon. And that’s it, no commentary, deleted scenes or anything else. “Poseidon” isn’t a bad movie, just predictable and the transfer leaves a little to the imagination but the audio is excellent. I’d pick up the widescreen version for a rental, though the History Channel documentary is interesting.
