The Wave

Roar Uthaug, 2015

IMDB

4/5

The Wave does something that a lot of American disaster movies rarely do. It develops the characters to the point where you have a genuine investment in them. In this sense, the Wave doesn’t pile on the budget on CGI effects of landmarks getting destroyed by Mother Nature. The Day After Tomorrow, Armageddon, Volcano. They all leave you remembering some of the visual elements involved but don’t leave you remembering any of the characters really. The Wave is more generous. Because of its restraint, and it’s carefully executed construction, it gives you more walking away from it. It gives you some really memorable visual elements but also provides some characters that you will remember as well. And with the synergy of both, the actual disaster has more of an emotional impact and less of a simple feast for the eyes popcorn fodder. 

We discover quite quickly that main character Kristian (Kristoffer Joner) is in a transition in his life. About to leave a geology position that he is very personally invested in to take on a high paying gig with the oil industry. You realize that he is doing this as a sacrifice for his family, to try and give them an upgrade. Likely a giant sacrifice for him that he still struggles with. He finds himself not able to easily walk away from his position, and he couldn’t started the move at worse timing (or best depending on how you would like to frame it). In a perfect situation, Kristian leaves during a really boring period where there is no activity on the computer monitors. But up until the very last minute of him about to get on the ferry boat out of town, there is activity in the mountain. And he physically cannot turn his back on it. This makes sense, someone so passionate about their job, not being able to turn their back on something they spent so many years obsessing over. Even with the conflict that it puts him in with his own family, as shown when he leaves his kids in the car to embark on a helicopter survey of the mountain. He is a man who thinks of work first, and family second. Like a lot of fathers and husbands of course, but not many have the same type of position as Kristian. But it’s a juggling act for Kristian. He undeniably loves his family very much. It’s an internal conflict for him, never really able to balance it effectively.

The big event doesn’t occur until close to the halfway point of the film. The ten minute clock ticking is a terrifyingly short window to find a safe place. When things unfold at this point, it’s completely tense and gripping. There are lots of interesting things going on at this point too. The things they are doing with water and light are so remarkable here. Some imagery that I can still easily bring up in my mind, and probably will for some time to come.

A unique and thorough production, The Wave is one of the best disaster films to be released in the past 10 years or so without question.

Open Water

Chris Kentis, 2003


(REWATCHED)

2/5

Romantic couple Susan (Blanchard Ryan) and Daniel (Daniel Travis) go scuba diving while on vacation in the Caribbean. After their boat miscounts the passengers it leaves without them, leaving them stranded in the shark infested waters.

It's probably a very familiar nightmare in many peoples eyes. Stuck in the ocean, not knowing whats below you in the infinite depth or not knowing when or if a safety vessel is coming for you. Do they even know that you are gone? It's an interesting idea, but this limited storytelling piece is limited in a lot of other areas. The immediate jump start of the film feels like you are getting pushed into cold water without warning. Soon you see zoom shots that are downright confusing, almost as if the button was broken on the camera and can activate at a moments notice. Why zoom in on the clamshell phone? It's amateurish. You soon feel alone (before you even leave for vacation), because the lack of character development leaves you relying on the performances of to pull you in. But they don't offer much. Ryan and Travis certainly don't deliver electrifying performances. You know their characters are busy, business-types. They never get a vacation, and they finally get one. But there's not much more there. Danny Boyle taught the world that you can paint a colorful picture with limited story as he did in 127 Hours. James Franco really delivered a complex performance and you were caught up in his dilemma. You were rooting for him. When you have a bland landscape of rippling ocean currents and the mostly periodic shark fin protruding through the surface, you really need the acting to carry the film. There are no ebbs and flows to Open Water. It has the excitement of observing a fish tank with the charm of watching a buoy float. There is so much room for improvement. In fact, similar-themed The Reef played on shark fears, and did it much better. And who cares if the shark was very obviously CGI'd. Nobody is looking for perfection there. The animatronic Jaws shark stills haunts us forty years later. But comparing Kentis to Spielberg would be like comparing Joel Schumacher to Stanley Kubrick.