| Review Date: Director: Peter Weir Writer: Peter Weir, John Collee Producers: Peter Weir, Samuel Goldwyn Jr., Duncan Henderson, John Manulis Actors: Russell Crowe as Capt. Jack Aubrey, Paul Bettany as Dr. Maturin , Billy Boyd as Barrett Bonden |
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The film wasn’t so bad as it was just a “technically sound” re-creation of days gone by and to credit it for that, would be something, if it was actually created as a documentary, which is what it often felt like. Human drama? I didn’t feel it. Exhilarating action? Not here. Well-developed characters? I beg to differ. And if Crowe’s uninteresting character wasn’t the whole ball of wax, consider Paul Bettany as the doctor/naturalist whose apparent hobby for collecting newfound insects takes over chunks of the film. Is this supposed to engage me? I don’t know, maybe this film is just out of my age range, maybe you’re supposed to be “into” the whole battleship thing and care to stare at a bunch of smoke and ropes or listen to bellows and grunts for two hours+, but in the world in which I live (and no, I’m not on the Far Side of it-maybe that’s the problem!), you actually need to give me a reason to give half a rat’s ass about the characters on the screen, or at the very least, toss some memorable action sequences in there, or interesting personalities, etc… Looking back, the film looked pretty, the opening sequence was a jolt, the time period was recreated authentically and even the performances were good enough to consider worthy of praise, but I was looking for depth, something interesting, some reason to keep watching and yeah…an answer to how an 8-year old child can be given command of a ship at the drop of a hat! Needless to say, this film did very little to impress me and instead, provided me plenty of rest, plenty of questions about its actual purpose and plenty of reasons NOT to recommend it to anyone who, like me, isn’t interested in spending over two hours with a bunch of half-assed characters traveling through one dull sea adventure (and I use the term “adventure”, loosely).