I like the story of Moby Dick. The 19th Century novel by Herman Melville about the story of a giant whale that rams a whaling ship and sinks it. Kudos! So when I saw this film slip under the radar amongst the tide of Star Wars overkill at the local cinema I just had to watch it. What I saw left me pleasently surprised.
First I discovered it was directed by Ron Howard whose previous films I admired. Films like Rush (the story of James Hunt winning the 1976 F1 title) and Apollo 13. The cast looked quite good. Chris Hemsworth, Cillian Murphy, Brendan Gleeson and Ben Whishaw (again). The title at first seemed quite baffling. Hardly inspiring and unlikely to grab the Star Wars zombies attention? Upon watching the film I discovered it wasn't a direct Moby Dick remake. It presents another angle showing how Melville was stimulated to write the book by way of a semi-biographical telling of one of the surviving sailors story back in the 1800s. Whishaw plays Melville in a brief role. Gleeson the older surviving sailor telling his lifelong secrets.
Director Howard is an expert in this type of film. He has a track record of telling human disaster stories (Apollo 13). The story has a human rivalry element between first officer Hemsworth and the silver spoon in his mouth Captain. The rivalry is simlar to that in Rush between James Hunt and Nikki Lauda in motor racing. CGI is evident a little bit in the scenes where the giant whale attacks the ship that reminded me of the Great White Shark in Jaws. With better timing and marketing this film would be more widely known.
First I discovered it was directed by Ron Howard whose previous films I admired. Films like Rush (the story of James Hunt winning the 1976 F1 title) and Apollo 13. The cast looked quite good. Chris Hemsworth, Cillian Murphy, Brendan Gleeson and Ben Whishaw (again). The title at first seemed quite baffling. Hardly inspiring and unlikely to grab the Star Wars zombies attention? Upon watching the film I discovered it wasn't a direct Moby Dick remake. It presents another angle showing how Melville was stimulated to write the book by way of a semi-biographical telling of one of the surviving sailors story back in the 1800s. Whishaw plays Melville in a brief role. Gleeson the older surviving sailor telling his lifelong secrets.
Director Howard is an expert in this type of film. He has a track record of telling human disaster stories (Apollo 13). The story has a human rivalry element between first officer Hemsworth and the silver spoon in his mouth Captain. The rivalry is simlar to that in Rush between James Hunt and Nikki Lauda in motor racing. CGI is evident a little bit in the scenes where the giant whale attacks the ship that reminded me of the Great White Shark in Jaws. With better timing and marketing this film would be more widely known.