Perfect Storm, The
This was one of those films that I really didn’t know if I was particularly keen on watching. I’d seen the trailers and although the effects looked impressive it didn’t really seem like my kind of film. Added to this was the fact that apart from "Thr
This was one of those films that I really didn’t know if I was particularly keen on watching. I’d seen the trailers and although the effects looked impressive it didn’t really seem like my kind of film. Added to this was the fact that apart from "Three Kings" I generally don’t like Clooney films. Anyway the disk came into my possession so I thought I’d better give it a try.
Plot
The film is based on the true story of a combination of three storm fronts that meet and cause a huge storm in the North Atlantic. The crew of a Sword Fishing boat from Gloucester are out at sea with a full load of fish when their Ice-Making machine breaks. They decide to try and return home directly through the storm rather than lose the whole catch. They hadn’t realised how bad the weather would be however, and they end up in a fight for their very survival.
Video / Audio
One thing you have to say about this disk is that both the sound and image quality are top notch. The picture itself comes in a 2.35:1 [hl=../article_content.php?id=3]Anamorphic[/hl] Widescreen format and it really is reference quality. The Dolby Digital 5.1 EX soundtrack is equally as good, with very effective usage of all the audio channels. Once you get into the action sequences you can almost feel the water splashing all around you.
Extras
The first Audio Commentary is with Director Wolfgang Peterson. This is a very insightful commentary with plenty of amazing facts like the fact that no real fish were used in the film, they were either Animatronic or CG. It’s also interesting to find out all the subtle things that were done with CG by ILM.
The second Audio Commentary is from the author of the original book, Sebastion Junger. This commentary talks more about his experiences writing the book with the locals of Gloucester.
Next up is a HBO First Look Special. This is an interesting extra with some good clips of the gimble they set up on a stage with a full size boat on it. It also gives you an idea of how tough the filming was for some of the crew in particular Mark Wahlberg.
Witnesses to the Storm is a rather brief 5-minute set of interviews with actual locals from Gloucester. They talk about how bad the actual storm was and how they’d never seen anything like it. Creating an Emotion is a 4-minute feature on Composer James Horner and how he created the musical score for the film.
Next up is a 10-minute selection of Conceptual Art with full audio commentary from Director Wolfgang Peterson. There’s a Photo Montage that’s accompanied by the theme tune "Yours Forever".
Finally there is a Theatrical Trailer, a Soundtrack Promo, a Storyboard Gallery and some Cast & Crew Bios.
Overall
I can’t say that I was overly impressed with this flick, it’s not that it’s a bad film as such; I just had a few problems with it. The first 30 minutes or so are spent with all the cast on shore in the town of Gloucester. It’s basically an introduction into the lives and relationships of the crewmembers.
This is obviously meant to make the people feel more real and make you feel for them when they eventually get into trouble. The trouble is the acting is all so wooden and forced that it just makes the whole time drag and I just ended up waiting for them to set sail so we could get to the action.
The other problem I had was that there were a few side plots involved that didn’t really seem to fit anywhere. For example there’s a crew of a sailboat that get stuck in the storm. This doesn’t relate to the main plot apart from the fact that they’re in the same storm and I’m sure they were only added as story filler.
The last hour of the film was an improvement. The action heats up quite dramatically once they actually hit the storm. I certainly can’t complain about the dramatic CG effects of the storm and the effective use of the soundstage. The trouble is I just couldn’t feel enough for the characters to really get engaged in the whole experience.
Reading over the last few paragraphs I possibly sound a bit too negative. It’s not that I hated the film; I just felt it could have been so much more. If you fancy a fairly brain dead Saturday night popcorn flick with great effects and a fair splattering of action then I’d rent it out and give it a shot. I think as for points I can only give it a middle of the road 2.5 out of 5.
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