Did we really need another version of The Poseidon Adventure? We already have the original film and the recent television remake. I mean, honestly, has Hollywood become so bereft of original ideas that they feel the need to revisit old disaster flicks? It must be hard to come up with a new disaster idea. At the very least, they could have taken an old idea and added some new ideas to the mix. I have seen the word "perfunctory" used to describe the film and it seems like a good use of the term. It accurately describes the film in a single word.
Poseidon, whether we really needed the film or not, has brought up a dilemma inside this critic’s mind. You see, I can derive equal pleasure from the great artistic films, films that are deemed important and such, as I can from the so-called popcorn films. Sometimes it is hard to balance the two sides in order to deliver an accurate review. This is one of those movies I found to be rather entertaining, in a dumb sort of way, but not terribly good.
This movie is like disaster paint by numbers. Any type of development is thrust to the side in favor of getting on to the next set piece in the sequence. Under normal circumstances, I would think it would be important to actually develop the characters you are about to kill. This film takes a different attack vector. Forget the characters - give them a couple of lines to broadly define their character, flip the boat, and start shrinking the group down with a variety of roadblocks.
The funny, or perhaps sad, thing about Poseidon, is that I found myself smiling giddily throughout. I found it to be absolutely hilarious. That translated to me actually having fun with this sub-par outing. As the wave hit, I was completely amused by the falling people, the crashing furniture, and the thinning of the herd, if you will.
The dialog was funny. These characters took themselves so seriously and they were characterized so thinly, I did not make any emotional connections with our intrepid band. This let me sit back, shut down, and let the wacky events unfold and wash over me like a rogue wave. I sat there predicting, usually successfully, who would live and who would die.
I was reminded of playing old Nintendo action games. You remember the games: you control a character along a defined path and when the programmers mean for you to alter your path, they put something in your way. You never had a choice; it may have seemed like you had one, but not really. You continued along the predetermined path until you reached the end of the game. This movie is like that. The group moves along a predetermined course of action; the sequence of events is inevitable.
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