When a rogue wave capsizes a luxury cruise ship in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, a small group of survivors find themselves unlikely allies in a battle for their lives.
Release Date: May 12, 2006 (conventional theaters & IMAX) Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures Director: Wolfgang Petersen
Screenwriter: Mark Protosevich Starring: Josh Lucas, Kurt Russell, Emmy Rossum, Jacinda Barrett, Mike Vogel, Jimmy Bennett, Mia Maestro, Andre Braugher, Richard Dreyfuss, Kevin Dillon, Freddy Rodríguez Genre: Action, Adventure Official Website: Poseidonmovie.com
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for intense prolonged sequences of disaster and peril. Runtime: 99 min. For rating reasons, go to FILMRATINGS.COM, and MPAA.ORG. Parents, please refer to PARENTALGUIDE.ORG
SYNOPSIS
It's New Year's Eve and festivities have begun aboard the luxury cruise ship Poseidon, at sea in the North Atlantic.
One of the finest vessels of its kind, Poseidon stands more than 20 stories tall, boasts 800 staterooms and 13 passenger decks.
Tonight, many of the ship's guests have gathered to greet the new year in style in the magnificent Main Ballroom. They raise champagne glasses as Captain Bradford (Andre Braugher) delivers a holiday toast and the band rolls into a version of Auld Lang Syne.
Meanwhile, on the bridge, the Chief Officer senses that something is wrong.
Scanning the horizon, he sees it – a Rogue Wave; a monstrous wall of water over one hundred feet high, bearing down on them with tremendous speed. He tries to steer the ship away from maximum impact but it's too late.
The wave strikes with colossal force, pitching the ship heavily to port before rolling it completely upside down. Passengers and crew are thrown into free fall, crushed by debris or dragged into the sea as water bursts in through shattered windows. Supports collapse, broken gas lines ignite flash fires and lights fail, leaving vast sections of the ship in darkness and chaos.
In its aftermath a few hundred survivors are left to huddle in the still-intact Main Ballroom, now resting below the waterline. They should stay together, the captain maintains, and wait here for rescue.
One man, professional gambler Dylan Johns (Josh Lucas), prefers to test the odds alone. Ignoring orders, he prepares to exit the Ballroom and find his own way to safety, but is collared by nine-year-old Conor (Jimmy Bennett), who asks that Dylan take him and his mother Maggie (Jacinda Barrett) along. Fast behind them is Robert Ramsey (Kurt Russell), anxious to search for his daughter Jennifer (Emmy Rossum) and her fiancé Christian (Mike Vogel). Only an hour earlier this young couple had found it impossible to tell him they were engaged and now face much graver challenges.
Wary of alliances, Dylan reluctantly leads the small band of survivors upward through the bowels of the ship. Those who choose to join them rather than wait below include a shy stowaway (Mia Maestro), a suicidal man (Richard Dreyfuss) who re-discovers his will to live and a young waiter with knowledge of the ship's layout (Freddy Rodriguez).
Determined to fight their way to the surface, they must forge a path together through layers of wreckage as the ship continues to sink. Bonds form quickly in this journey of vertical climbs, dead ends and sheer drops. And trust proves vital.
What
do you do when your life is turned upside down?
How
do you keep your head above water? How do you surface from your
troubles? You need help. You need grace. You need someone who
can show you the way. And sometimes, you need someone who will
sacrifice him or herself for your safety. I’m talking about
the new movie POSEIDON, but I could just as easily be talking
about your life when a crisis hits.
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Poseidon
is basically Titanic without the exposition, character, drama,
or romance.
The
film skips the ususal time setting things up and basically gets
right to it. Once the wave hits and the ship flips over, which
is a pretty impressive sequence effects-wise, the film is very
efficient in going through all the steps and scenes necessary for
a disaster film. You don’t really get much more cliched or
paint-by-numbers than this. However...
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Poseidon
is not a good movie.
In fact, it is a pretty dismal one.
The
lead actors try their noblest to generate life from their limp
characters, but even that cannot raise this ship above water. The
special effects enter on cue, do their damage, and disappear without
a hint of originality or artistic flair. This movie is no The
Day After Tomorrow…and what does THAT say? The
Poseidon Adventure pulled this story off in a vastly superior way back in 1972.
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will not post these comments. I
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Email David Bruce
