What Went Wrong: Poseidon
By Shalimar Sahota
November 29, 2012
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Poseidon is a loose adaptation of the novel The Poseidon Adventure by Paul Gallico. Previously adapted for the screen in 1972, that film cost $5 million to produce, starred Gene Hackman and managed to earn $84 million at the US box office, an amount that the latest version failed to reach. Directed by Wolfgang Petersen, who had previously helmed Das Boot and The Perfect Storm, he saw Poseidon as the third of his trilogy of boat films. Audiences had already seen Peterson deliver a huge wave in The Perfect Storm and that film managed to earn over $300 million worldwide. For Warner Bros. it seemed fitting to have him direct Poseidon, which appeared to be offering the same thing, except this time there’s a bigger boat and a bigger wave. Many of you probably already know that bigger does not necessarily mean better.
It is New Year’s Eve and plenty of people are seeing in the New Year on the luxury liner Poseidon, which is on its way to New York. However, just moments after the clock hits midnight, the ship is hit by a 150 foot “rogue wave”, causing it to turn upside-down. The Captain (Andre Braugher) advisors the survivors to stay in the ballroom and wait for rescue. However, gambling loner Dylan Johns (Josh Lucas) senses the worst and decides to make an escape. Joining him are former fireman and ex-mayor of New York Robert Ramsey (Kurt Russell), his daughter Jennifer (Emmy Rossum), her boyfriend Christian (Mike Vogel), the somewhat suicidal Richard (Richard Dreyfuss), the waiter Marco (Freddy Rodríguez) the panic-stricken stowaway Elena (Mía Maestro) and the single mother Maggie and her son Conor (Jacinda Barrett and Jimmy Bennett).
Adapted by Mark Protosevich, he revealed that he also viewed the original film as well. Director Peterson wanted to make it clear that his film was not a remake of The Poseidon Adventure. “We didn’t want that,” said Peterson. “We only use the basic idea of the gigantic big luxurious ship being caught by an enormous wave.”
On the whole, Poseidon is your classic disaster movie scenario, with an abundance of special effects. Somewhat unfairly compared to Titanic, whereas James Cameron’s epic spends half the running time in building up a love story and allowing the audience to know the assortment of characters before disaster hits, Poseidon doesn’t faff about. The “rogue wave” hits about 17 minutes in. It’s just enough time to say hello to the characters who will be our guide through a topsy-turvy ship, but not enough to really care about whether they’ll ever eat breakfast again. What’s unique about the characters is that they’re normal everyday people and we get to see how they handle a disaster, probably so that the audience can better identify with them. It also happens to be the film’s failing, in that on their own, there’s really nothing unique about them.
It’s a typical assortment of mismatched characters, with the token old guy and of course a young child, who in some unexplainable way gets split up from the group. How he ends up rejoining is even more of a mystery. Kurt Russell’s Robert Ramsey is probably the closest to an expert, given that he used to be a fireman, and Josh Lucas’s Dylan Johns seems to know more than he’s letting on given his knowledge of the ship. The dynamic between these two working together is pretty good. It’s also incredibly convenient that the group of survivors all happen to be great swimmers and are able to hold their breath for a long time underwater. Even the kid! Still, major credit goes to the actors, who really are pushing themselves by working on flooded sets and swimming underwater.
Most of the monumentally huge $160 million production budget went towards the special effects and the upside-down sets, with the film taking up as many as five soundstages. Peterson also revealed that the opening two and a half minute shot of Josh Lucas jogging on what is actually a fully CGI recreated ship was one of the most “complicated, challenging [and] costly.” In fact, the ship itself seems to be the star of the film. When it came to the bold posters for Poseidon, the actors were nowhere to be seen. Not even their names were featured.
It’s not really about following any of the characters, though. Instead it’s all about how many set pieces an upside-down ship can provide in around 90 minutes, with people going through doors, elevator shafts, vents and swimming underwater, hoping to find a way out. To be fair, some of the set pieces do make for tense nail-biters, even if they are mostly cliché.
Opening in the US on May 12, 2006, Poseidon reached #2 with an opening weekend take of $22.1 million and was held out of the top spot by Mission: Impossible III (which was in its second week). The following week it was up against the opening of The Da Vinci Code and was down to #4 with $9.2 million. Oh dear. Warner’s Chief Operating Officer, Alan F. Horn spoke to Variety about the film’s performance, saying, “I’m not willing to concede Poseidon as a failure of great magnitude, but I will agree that the results in the US have been very, very disappointing.” The film spent five weeks in the US top ten and managed to end its run with a take of $60.6 million. Its box office takings overseas of $121 million managed to bring its total worldwide gross to a little over $181 million. Hmm.
The film received mixed to negative reviews, with many highlighting the lack of character development. Boosting the running time a little and adding a few more involving, interesting (maybe even quirky) characters could have helped. The kind that will make the audience gasp when their totally unexpected death occurs. Throw a character with a pet dog in there and you’re probably onto a winner. Plus, there’s nothing wrong with a little comedy amid disaster. Hell, even the ill-advised sequel, Beyond the Poseidon Adventure, actually had some good laughs in it (some unintentional).
It’s also worth noting that a not-so-good TV movie, The Poseidon Adventure, was broadcast by NBC in November 2005. Given the bad impression it left on those that saw it, they probably weren’t going to pay to see the same story again so soon.
When Poseidon was released I was thinking about giving it a watch, but once the reviews came in I gave it a miss. Having now seen it I’m sure it would have made for quite an experience on the big screen, for on a technical level it certainly looks and sounds the business (it received an Oscar nomination for its visual effects). But the technical excellence cannot hide just how average it all is (it also received a Razzie nomination for Worst Remake or Rip-off). The majority of the budget obviously went towards wowing the audience with the admittedly incredible effects and production design. I guess there was hardly anything was left over when it came to enhancing the script and the characters, an archetypal bunch who are essentially plodding their way through a succession of set pieces. The only reason anyone would endure this is to see how the survivors will make it out and which ones will actually survive.