I can only assume this was some tax avoidance and/or laundering project. The biggest tragedy, apart from Daisy Ridley continually signing on to bad films, is having to sympathise with Martin Campbell who clearly doesn't give a toss about this film. It's impossible to rationalise this came from the director of Casino Royale and both versions of Edge of Darkness, the direction is just horrible throughout, it's more like a debut from someone who'd only shot a Muller commercial.
The…
I've been excited to see this as I loved the documentary (same director) and underwater/sea/disaster films in general (eg The Abyss, Underwater, Deepwater Horizon, Sanctum). This was exactly what I expected, a lean dramatisation with a bit of a TV movie feel here and there. It suffers a little with some softly directed acting ( eg MyAnna Burning, all grown up after The Descent) and not really adapting the story in any meaningful way (the docu does a perfectly good (superior) job of telling the story already). But it's still highly watchable, gripping, and still hit me in the feels.
Here's how to watch this faux-docu-horror:
- Watch the first five minutes, to get a gist of the situation.
- Watch the last 15 minutes, to see where it all leads to.
Everything between those bits is just repetitive talking-heads filler for the sake of runtime, and really does nothing to further the story. Its extremely dull. But the ending (once they get to some 'found footage') makes for a nice Blair-Witch-ish short film that has some nice eerie moments. But its absolutely not worth investing an hour for, just cut straight to it.
I think I love this film more than any one else ever. I've seen it countless times, is the only film I can watch once a year and still find consistently interesting and engaging. Today I watched the bluray projected onto a 140" screen, something I doubt has happened often being that its extremely obscure and people seem to hate it (or find it naff/boring).
Yes, the poster is exceptionally misleading (as is an old VHS release calling it "Roboman"…
