Wow. I started my blog at the beginning of 2015 with a fantastic water movie, and now after a year of movie blogging we enter 2016 with yet again another water movie! I have stated before also that whenever there's a water movie I just melt and become giddy, because I love the water, and the Finest Hours is yet again another really fun, wet, ride to go through and start the year off with.
I'm going to say upfront that this is an okay movie. It's not bad, but it's not great, however, it's a whole lot of fun.....watching, not that the story is happy go lucky, because let's face it when you're boat is sinking in the middle of the ocean and your life depends on four guys to get to you......that's kinda depressing.
The movie starts off with an introduction to our characters that I just didn't think needed to be in the movie. To balance the true heroic work that the film mostly shows we have to get through the beginnings of a relationship, and establishing that these two characters love each other so much that they want to get married in a matter of 10-20 minutes. I don't mind romance subplots, but not every story needs them, and this one just felt a little odd and at times corny.
The film really heats up when we're out on the ocean and the ship starts cracking up, breaking apart, and ultimately is barely afloat with thirty three survivors on board trying to stay alive. Granted the CG used in this film is painstakingly obvious, it surprisingly didn't take me out of the movie. When you get to see the big reveal of half the ship floating away and sinking in one of the worst storms in a year, it's pretty haunting to see that and then think "my God, this was a true story."
I really liked the characters that were on the wrecked ship and the coast guard men who eventually rescued them, but I have to admit that I really didn't like the main female protagonist and the new coast guard commander. These two bugged the heck out of me. I know that she's supposed to be a strong woman, but there's a fine line between strong woman, and pushy, and what I saw was a woman who didn't like not getting what she wanted. As for the commander who was new in town.....what an idiot! He doesn't know the waters around there and he's ignoring the advice that people who have lived their whole life there just to be top dog?? Even I knew he was making shitty decisions! But enough about that.
Those two were the only bits of the film that irritated me. Most of the film actually shows how the crew on the torn apart ship deals with trying to stay alive, and it's riveting. I loved the dynamics of the crew mates questioning if they should stay with the ship or try and go out in life boats, I loved that even in this unimaginable situation they were in, they worked together to try and stay alive, and the stuff that they actually do to stay alive had me on the edge of my seat. Heck, even when the coast guard does get to the ship, the act alone of getting over thirty people on such a tiny boat was nail biting, and one of the biggest reasons why this film felt like it had so much tension was the fact that the waves were gigantic! This really showed the harsh mistress that the sea can be, and just watching this movie and thinking that this really happened still blows my mind.
Your enjoyment of this movie will be based on how tolerant you are to CGI, corny love prevails cliche's, but I generally think this was a good movie, and I'd totally go out to see it again. If anything, however, I think it made me more interested to go read the book because this is one of those true stories where you have to keep telling yourself that it isn't fiction.
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