Howard is a director that I am always looking forward to seeing what he has come up with next. With a lot of his most successful films being based on true events, this one looks to be no different after seeing the trailer.
Well after seeing it, it was a mixed bag for me. The first act goes at a straightforward momentum. Then the middle part of the film does slow down and does give a dull feeling. Thankfully, the third act gives the film a surprising amount of brutality which made it much more satisfying viewing.
The trailer does give you the feeling that it's going to be a man against an animal adventure. But the film ends up being about man against nature.
We see a great mystical sense of man's eternal battle with the sea and I feel Anthony Dod Mantle's cinematography really shows that and the camerawork really are the best highlights of the film.
I was really surprised on how brutal it got, with a few gross-out moments. I honestly did not think they would go that far in showing the harshness of whale hunting and being stranded out at sea.
Sadly, there are plenty of negative or weak segments. Calling this film 'good but not great' shows that the good stuff is not strong or interesting enough.
I never got the sense of fear with any of the whales we see on screen. They just seem there for an occasional action set-piece.
One film that gives us a great example of giving the marine creature fear, meaning and depth is Jaws. That film certainly made us fearful of the water and not wanting
There is a huge lack in character development. We never get the full intentions for the decisions they make. If there was any sort of development, it was quickly glossed over.
The performances were fine as a whole. Chris Hemsworth does play the lead well and found his physical transformation impressive, especially in the third act. It was great to see Ben Whishaw play Herman Melville and Brendan Gleeson. It was a nice surprise to see Benjamin Walker. I enjoyed his performance as Abraham Lincoln in 'Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter' and I felt he had a fine on-screen relationship with Hemsworth. As for Cillian Murphy, I would have liked to have seen more of his character as I know he can out-shine the leads with his performances.
But sadly, I did not care enough for the characters to give this a rating that could battle with the best films of 2015. The lead was solidly developed, and maybe a couple of the supportive cast. But you could easily forget who is who. But I still liked the sense of man versus nature. I could be cruel and call it a 'snooze-fest'. But I feel there is enough content film to talk about. But that slow second act does not help itself.
I think after seeing films like 'Cast Away' and 'Life Of Pi', I'd be lying if I said this film gives us something new and surprising. It ended up being serviceable entertainment. But with its premise sounding like a modern epic, I feel this still deserves to be seen on the big screen just for the action set-pieces alone.
But in the end, Howard and his team did not seem to make the most of it.
Rating: 7/10
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