Poseidon is no Titanic

Cinema is a director's medium.

Under the hands of a new or non-established director, Poseidon could have easily come off as a no-brainer, waste-of-time effort, or a lame excuse to return to the waters cum action movie. But, under the skillful craftsmanship of the experienced Wolfgang Petersen, Poseidon was rather passable, albeit with a lot of loopholes, which could have inevitably led to the "sinking" of the ship, in box office terms literally.

No tight script, not much character development, no Leo, no Clooney, but for a summer-oriented flick, still watchable.

For those who crave for a typical action-packed / adventure motion, the movie is definitely easy-to-chew. But for those who are searching for a little bit more depth in a fiction, just wait till Autumn or Winter - that's the time where the likes of "Crash" of "Brokeback Mountain" would appear.

The good news is, if you're a fan of Kurt Russell, he is still the reliable fella you'd want to be with if you are trapped in a certain kind of misfortune or disaster or anything (another plus point is that Mia Maestro who played one of the victims, Elena, was quite a dish). But the not so good news is that none of these characters are given much needed screen time to allow you to sympathize with their plight or quest for survival.

Right from the word go, Petersen leaves you with no time to dabble with the characters. The movie just walks straight into the night the ocean decided to rip the liner apart. A lot of lives were taken along the ride, and a lot of money must have been spent to make the disaster look real and effective on screen. Somehow, in that aspect, I put my hats off to Petersen & his Special Effects Crew for succesfully creating the much needed tensified scenes above & under the water.

At certain points of the movie, you could be sucked into the water as long as the characters are plunged into it. Now that was effective use of special effects.

However, take example of Titanic or Perfect Storm to a lesser extent - they move you in certain ways (emotionally and sensibly), and to me, that is more lasting than a complete blown out of CGI Effects.

Any movies for that matter, the special effects should enhance the texture & style of the movie, not being the main focus, in order for it to have a lasting impression on one's mind. Audience, in general felt for Titanic because at the crux of the sinking of a great ship lies a quenching tale of 2 souls in love but bounded by the differences of stratas in society.

But, then again, in the midst of summer madness, sometimes style does prevail over substance ...