Ron Howard's latest wasan alright movie - it was neither spectacularly good nor horrendously bad - it just lacked the grandeur and epic sweep that it so badly wished it had, but, in the end, it was failed by a generic story and un-imaginative storytelling.
Chris Hemsworth is an underrated actor and it is going to take a lot for him to get out from under Thor's shadow. His last outing with Howard gave us the excellent Rush and hopefully with the moolah from Marvel, he can continue to pursue smaller films that allow him to showcase his acting chops.
The story by Char;es Levant, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver was too focused on getting the characters to meet The Whale that it sacrificed characterization and relationship building which would become so important in the Third Act as the crew tried to survive. In truth, the story behind Moby Dick could have been very interesting, but the direction it took was not refreshing or new.
ITHOTS tried to emulate the gorgeous CGI-created world of Life of Pi but failed. Cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle and Howard just could not capture the beauty as well as Claudio Miranda and Lee Ang. Neither could Howard copy the gritty realism of J.C. Chandor's All is Lost - despite Hemsworth's dedication to the role.
Howard had some moments where he shone and brought a palpable sense of excitement and terror to the audience. However, there were more moments that felt rushed and generic. And of course, there was also the badly done CGI. The water scenes were actually done really well when it was real but the CGI moments ranged from bad to laughable - which then brings the audience out of the movie. Even worse were the land scenes with one of the worse CGI seen on a big budget film (seriously, TV's Supergirl and Marvel's Agents of SHIELD had better CGI).
The cast gathered was terrific, but sadly wasted and misuse. Although there was a real sense of camaraderie and chemistry between Hemsworth, Benjamin Walker, Cillian Murphy and Tom Holland (Spidey, meet Thor; Thor, meet Spidey!) it was not enough to make us really care about the characters or their conflict. Ben Wishaw, Brenden Gleeson and Michelle Fairley was actually more interesting as a set although their story was separate from the heroics.
The material itself was so rich that this film could have been epic, but instead it was just acceptable and mildly entertaining which was such a shame. Can Chris Hemsworth breakout?
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