Deepwater Horizon
Peter
Berg is a fairly streaky director. He's had some pretty bad films (both
Hancock and Battleship) come to mind but then again Lone Survivor was
not bad and had some gripping action. I think Berg is in a place where
he trusts an actor and trusts the formula of bringing a real life event
to the screen. That's basically where Mark Wahlberg and his past,
present and future film is (Lone Survivor, Deepwater Horizon, and
Patriots Day). As mentioned earlier Lone Survivor's depiction of war and
the action based cinematography kept your eyes glued to the screen, so
how would the followup film stack up?
The
trailers for the film were not interesting. The Deepwater Horizon oil
spill and explosion was obviously a disaster and a sad event but was it
worth a film? The build to the events of the disaster are slow. You sit
through a lot of the jargon of the oil drilling world. I'd say its easy
to lose interest in the first third of the film, especially if you don't
get invested in the film's characters. You also have to sit through
some bad accents (which is a pet peeve of mine). The films got a fairly
good cast to boot and for the most part there are no faults acting wise.
Gina Rodriguez was convincing, I haven't seen anything with her
previously but she delivered. I also liked Kate Hudson in the small
doses of the film that she appears in. She seemed like a raw character
who was genuinely afflicted with her husbands situation and the up in
the air nature of his safety really showed through in the emotion of her
character.
I'm
a fan of Mark Wahlberg. He doesn't always choose the best projects but
he might be on to something co-oping with Peter Berg for a few films.
You won't complain about Wahlberg being the hero here. Once the disaster
occurs the pace picks up which is a good and bad thing. I'd say the
first act was not very engaging and sort of set the tone for the rest of
the film. The action depiction is great. There are moments of it that
will captivate you and depending on who you are you will be moved with
the raw emotionality depicted in the film. Be warned though, that the
event is prolonged so there's not much else going on outside of the
event. I saw a lot of similar camerawork from Berg in this and Lone
Survivor. The camera at times seems to be a spectator just set as a fly
on the wall for the events. The camerawork also becomes frenetic and
pacy, which adds to the atmosphere set by the very scary and
unpredictable event.
Once
the disaster occurs and the film really starts rolling, there is decent
satisfaction. I thought this film was better than I hoped, which is
really much better than my expectations going in. However, its not a
perfect film and can't stay wholly engaging. Worth a watch for the peeps
who like Berg/Wahlberg or are fascinated by the event. Otherwise, your
response to this film may (much like mine) be rather indifferent.
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