Poseidon (2006)

Poseidon is a 2006 american disaster film directed by Wolfgang Peterson and based on The Poseidon Adventure by Paul Gallico. The film was released by Warner Bros. Pictures on May 12, 2006.

Plot
After a huge tidal wave capsizes a luxury liner in the North Atlantic, individual survivors (Josh Lucas, Kurt Russell, Jacinda Barrett) band together and traverse a hazardous upside-down maze that they hope will take them to safety. As the wrecked vessel fills with water, the survivors must call on hidden strengths and skills to face the fight of their lives.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Inconsistent pacing; before the tidal wave capsizes the Poseidon, everything is flowing normally with plenty of character development, yet when the disaster happens, everything goes too fast with too much action scenes and little room to know more about the characters.
 * 2) * Despite the over one and a half hour running time, anyone who watches this film will feel like it was too short due to the extremely fast pacing throughout most of the film.
 * 3) The characters in the film are either boring or forgettable.
 * 4) After the ship capsizes, Captain Michael Bradford tells everyone to stay put and orders the bulkheads to be locked even though they're in a submerged ballroom of a sinking ship.
 * 5) In the elevator shaft scene, the characters literally left Marco to get crushed by a falling elevator and show little signs of refusal. Even if they couldn't hold on to him, it was still an awful way to kill off a character.
 * 6) Though the acting is decent, there are some laughable errors like when Dylan forces Elena into the air duct and she screams "NO JOSH" (referring to Dylan's actor, Josh Lucas).
 * 7) While sometimes the sound mixing is fine, some of it sounds really off. Example; when the ship finally capsizes completely, the sound effect sounds very identical to someone throwing up.
 * 8) As a disaster movie, it should have a large kill count. But most of the deaths that are meant to be significant to the plot end up being pointless as none of us care what happens to these characters due to their lack of development.
 * 9) In the original 1972 The Poseidon Adventure, the tidal wave is triggered by an earthquake. But here, the cause is never justified.
 * 10) Like Titanic 2, the wave itself also looks too much like a tsunami even though it's in the middle of the ocean.
 * 11) A very out of place and poorly executed joke making it like a rescue team arrived by boat to pick up the survivors like in the original only for it to turn out to be a cable.
 * 12) It is never explained how the bow thrusters were still working after the ship capsized, as the engine room would've been damaged beyond repair.
 * 13) Aside from showing the fact that the ship is sinking, the scene showing everyone drowning in the ballroom is pointless and serves no purpose.
 * 14) The film was evidently made to cash in on James Cameron's Titanic. And it shows.

Good Qualities

 * 1) The visual effects are decent, but the CGI of the Poseidon is absolutely amazing. It actually looks like a real ship.
 * 2) Memorable soundtrack by Klaus Badelt, especially the opening score.
 * 3) While they take up more of the running time than the character development, the action scenes are still intense to watch, especially this one.
 * 4) The ship has an unforgettable design, despite some safety flaws.
 * 5) The film has gained a noticeable cult-following among ocean liner enthusiasts and fans of disaster films.
 * 6) A memorable theatrical poster.
 * 7) While inferior to the original, it's not as bad as the 2005 TV adaptation and Titanic 2.
 * 8) Decent performances from the cast.

Critical reception
The film received mixed reviews, with some praising it's visual effects but others criticizing it's writing. The film currently holds 33%, based on 203 reviews, on Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus reading "This remake of The Poseidon Adventure delivers dazzling special effects. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that any of the budget was left over to devote to the script."

The film received a nomination at the Golden Raspberry Awards for Worst Remake or Ripoff, loosing to Little Man. However, it was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, losing to Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.

Box office
The film grossed $22,155,410 during its opening weekend, for an average of $6,232 from 3,555 theaters, finishing in second place behind Mission: Impossible III at the box office. Poseidon went on to generate $60,674,817 in the United States, and $121,000,000 in foreign markets, for a combined total gross of $181,674,817.

Trivia

 * This was Wolfgang Peterson's last English-language film as of 2006.
 * During the filming of the scene where Robert Ramsey drowns Kurt Russell really started to drown.
 * The film holds a Guinness World Record for having the most detailed CG model in a film. The exterior shots included 181,579 individual objects, including 382 cabins, 876 portholes, 73 towels, and 681 deck chairs, all of which were created by digital effects company Industrial Light & Magic.
 * The ship's hull was modeled after the RMS Queen Mary 2, which also inspired the ballroom.
 * Be Without You (Moto Blanco Vocal Mix) (8:44) by Mary J. Blige is played in the film but was not included on the soundtrack.