Miscast as a Blockbuster

Tonight I took a little trip to Redbox and picked up In The Heart of the Sea (2015). The story of the Essex and its crew after a whale sank the ship was intriguing to me and the trailer made it look interesting enough, but I didn't see it in theaters because it came out within weeks of The Force Awakens.

This is not a bad movie, in fact it's kind of good, but it has a couple of very small problems that resulted in bad reviews and bad ticket sales were because of a very small number of mistakes. One of the best things about this movie is the camera work in the action sequences absent of the great under water special effects. The camera spins and sticks on the actors at times like the cinematographer took useful notes from GoPro videos. There are very interesting colors used to make this movie look like it comes from another era and a dark silvery tint. It is a greatly stylized movie but the score isn't special. The score is an orchestra and sounds like any other big budget movie. It makes the movie seem less special. I think if there was a more discordant score mixed with influences of period music this movie would have leaned into being a more artistic film and not a popcorn action movie.

It also does not help the movie that the face of the movie is Chris "Thor" Hemsworth is the face of the film even though there is a full cast of capable British actors. Unfortunately, it doesn't quite make sense why everyone is British in this movie because the characters are from Massachusetts when they should probably sound a little more like rural Mainers. Hemsworth has a few words that almost sound like they have a New England accent to them, still sounds like Thor.

Finally, it's a little odd that there's a Moby Dick subplot to this movie. It almost seems like it's used to either remind the viewer of the book or to be defensive against claims of ripping off the book. It felt like the clunky interview portion of Life of Pi. In the end, it's an interesting movie that reminded me of Master and Commander, and The Bounty but with more spectacular and greatly execute special effects and could have gone through one more edit of the score and the Herman Melville story line to be critically enjoyed.