Legendary director Wolfgang Petersen (Das Boot, The Perfect Storm) brings all his talent for jaw-dropping spectacle to his 2006 epic disaster movie Poseidon, a pulse-pounding update of Paul Gallico’s classic adventure novel. Passengers and crew members alike are celebrating New Year’s Eve aboard the cruise-liner Poseidon, the pinnacle of engineering and the height of luxury. But soon after the clock strikes midnight, a gigantic rogue wave comes crashing against the vessel, sending it plummeting towards the depths of the Atlantic Ocean. As the ship sinks further down, a group of survivors must learn to work together if they are to pull through this terrifying ordeal. With an outstanding ensemble cast including Kurt Russell, Josh Lucas, Richard Dreyfuss, Andre Braugher and Emmy Rossum, and stunning special effects by Industrial Light and Magic, Poseidon is an audiovisual tour de force, presented for the first time on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray.
What We Thought:
I first saw Poseidon May 10, 2006. How do I remember that oddly specific date? I went to its premiere at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre with all the stars (check out the ticket below). Once I got the 4K to review I realized I hadn’t seen it since then and popped it in. You can tell they honestly thought they made something big back then. Was it going to be the next Titanic? Was it going to be as popular as The Poseidon Adventure from 1972? Unfortunately it was neither and rewatching it on 4K I remembered why.
The biggest issue with the film is it’s completely generic. The 1972 version was filled with Oscar winners and was nominated for Oscars as well. Titanic did the same thing. Both are timeless and hold up decades later. Kurt Russell is the biggest name in this film and that’s no slight to Kurt (and meeting him at the premiere was awesome), but the rest of the cast is very dated. Josh Lucas was getting pushed to be a big time leading man. Fergie from The Black-Eyed Peas plays a singer in it. Jacinda Barrett was still trying to parlay her Real World fame into a film career. Richard Dreyfuss is still Richard Dreyfuss and it has a young pre-Shameless Emmy Rossum in it too. There are other people I had to look up to see if they went much further with their careers.
Poseidon also looks bad with very suspect CGI. I understand judging an almost 20 year old film by today’s standards isn’t great, but by 2006 we had decent effects. Titanic was the 1990s and looked better. The rogue wave that hits the ship is laughable. The disaster inside and the boat flipping over is really bad too. Most of the flames look horrible and director Wolfgang Petersen didn’t seem to care. No one really did. It’s also really short at under an hour and forty minutes. An epic disaster film should never be that short and needs time to build up the story and backstories of the characters for anyone to care about them surviving.
When they eventually remake The Poseidon Adventure everyone will be complaining about remaking classics because they forget this remake already exists. Even with a fond memory of rubbing shoulders with Hollywood, I can’t say I have any fondness for Poseidon. I hadn’t seen it in almost 20 years and honestly forgot Richard Dreyfuss was in it. It really is that forgettable. Maybe it has fans out there because Wolfgang Petersen does have a solid filmography so I’m sure there are people who might like it. If you are one of them the 4K does look and sound great and it’s jam packed with bonus features.
Bonus Features:
- 4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS
- 4K (2160p) Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
- Original DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround audio
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Ocean View, a brand-new interview with director of photography John Seale
- Big Sets for Big-Time Directors, a brand new interview with production designer William Sandell
- Surfing the VFX Wave, a brand new interview with visual effects supervisor Boyd Shermis
- Bringing Out the Dead, a brand new interview with make-up effects on-set supervisor Michael Deak
- Set a Course for Adventure, a brand new retrospective on the film by Heath Holland
- Poseidon: A Ship on a Soundstage, a featurette looking at the film’s production featuring interviews with cast and crew
- Poseidon: Upside Down, a featurette exploring the film’s challenging set design
- A Shipmate’s Diary, a featurette following production assistant Malona Voigt on the set of Poseidon
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Jacey
- Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Priscilla Page
The Nerds Templar 