The next wave of summer effects films officially kicks off today with the release of Warner Bros.’s Poseidon, a remake of the 1972 seafaring disaster flick, The Poseidon Adventure. And though the original was successful enough to warrant a sequel, 1979’s Beyond the Poseidon Adventure, reviews for this latest version suggest that it won’t float quite as well.
Directed by Wolfgang Peterson (Troy, The Perfect Storm), Poseidon puts the crew and passengers of an ocean liner in a bad position when a massive wave turns the ship upside-down. Josh Lucas, Kurt Russell and Richard Dreyfuss lead an ensemble cast that has to compete with the spectacle of visual effects by Motion Picture Company, Giant Killer Robots, Hydraulx, CIS Hollywood, Industrial Light & Magic, Frantic Films, Lola Visual Effects, Pixel Playground and Scanline.
Buoyed by digital eye candy and breathtaking action, the film should have a ship-shape opening. However, critics posit that deficiencies in the human element may prevent it from being this year’s Titanic. Still, Poseidon should have what it takes to sail to the top spot at the box office this weekend as Paramount’s Mission: Impossible III begins to take on water. DreamWorks will then have the task of sinking the ship with the May 19 release of the animated Over the Hedge.
Ron Magid writes about the vfx of Poseidon, in the Juse issue of Animation Magazine.
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