Review: DEEPWATER HORIZON

The Sea Is On Fire!

2.5 stars

Mini Review:

Based on a true story, this retelling of the biggest oil disaster in the US oil exploration history may be a predictable movie, but the drama of the men on sea, the horror of fire on water is incredible. The bravery of the men and women on the oil exploration rig, and the unending, unrepentant greed of the oil companies is very well depicted.

Main Review:

Deepwater Horizon looks like the coolest oil exploration vessel. It looks like a rig, with foundation et al, but the depths at which it operates, there is no way you can lay foundations and secure it. The vessel is designed to look like a rig, but is merely a gigantic ship that houses over 132 men, drilling into the ocean floor for black gold.

But as they say, the world is driven by ‘money, money, money!’ and in spite of the fact that tests have not been conducted thoroughly, the oil executives insist on drilling for oil. The disaster that strikes swiftly.

This is a movie where the popcorn remains uneaten because the action on screen is so shockingly real. You begin to feel the fire and panic sets deep inside your stomach and begins to reach your limbs. Mark Wahlberg and Kurt Russell have already told us that the crew is not comfortable with the proceedings. You have seen enough disaster movies to know how the movie progresses. But not at one point do you wish there was coffee refill handy or more popcorn. The disaster scenes are beautifully shot. You are truly shocked at the sequence of events. You begin to pray that the bad oil company men lose their limbs or die horribly as a consequence of their greed.

One of the biggest flaws of this fine film is that in telling of the disaster, the director leaves us no time to invest in the characters. You want to like Mark Wahlberg’s character, but apart from the one lovely moment with his daughter it’s all lovemaking with Kate Hudson who plays the wife. We don’t know anything about Gina Rodriguez’s character except that she is a car nerd. As a cinema crazy public, you wish there was some connect with her car exhaust and what she does during the disaster, it’s a smoking gun, waiting to be discovered.

Considering it is the worst maritime disaster in recent times, the movie does move you and scare you and make you wonder how powerful nature is and how pathetic we humans are in the face of such power.

(this review appears on nowrunning dot com)