Written by Hombre Divertido
Unfortunately, the ship stays afloat a lot longer than the film.
When I heard that they were remaking the 1972 film The Poseidon Adventure, and shortening the title to Poseidon, I had no idea they were taking adventure out of the film as well as the title.
Nineteen minutes were also cut from the running time. All 19 and more certainly should have been utilized for character development that might have given us reason to care about the new group of passengers aboard the capsized ocean liner.
Apparently a need for an antagonist other than the constantly rising water was not considered necessary, as the usually enjoyable-to-watch Kevin Dillon was killed off just as he was reaching his obnoxious worst. Dillon, giving a performance worthy of Richard Chamberlain in The Towering Inferno, begins a somewhat disjointed tirade, prompted by nothing, prior to being killed off by falling debris in a moment that anyone could see coming as easily as the wave.
The relationship between Gene Hackman and Ernest Borgnine, so enjoyable to watch and crucial to the success of the original, was non-existent between Josh Lucas and Kurt Russell, both of whom are wasted in this film. Though not as wasted as Richard Dreyfuss who plays a gay character that does nothing more than stand around and flail his arms. Dreyfuss wins the “What the Heck Did You Make This Movie For” award narrowly beating out the highly deserving Robin “I needed to make a mortgage payment” Williams in RV.
Credit must be given to the writer Mark Protosevich for at least keeping the giant wave rather than going with the terrorist explosions used in the much worse television telling of this waterlogged tale.
Though they did keep the wave, the technological advances over the 34 years between films should have resulted in far superior effects. Instead, we were subjected to computer-generated crud that must have made Irwin Allen smile gleefully.
This film is a snooze fest from start to finish that generates little excitement or interest.
Recommendation: Wait for it to come out on DVD, and then rent the original.
