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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.

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