Set in New England 1820, Chris Hemsworth (best know for Thor) plays Owen Chase, a whale hunter for a career, stud of a husband and of course a soon to be father. In case you didn’t know, this film is inspired by the great novel Moby-Dick.

Owen is the reluctant 2nd in command of a ship (when he was hoping for the position of thy captain) and now takes orders from someone he’s never worked with and trusted before. The captain, 2nd in charge (Christ Hemsworth) and crew not only struggle with each other’s choices and trust issues, but the crew must also deal with a large Whale which is bigger than anything they have ever seen. The large whale of course enjoys to torment…

Having seen the film movie trailers in advance, the trailers really gave me the impression the main focus of this film would be the large whale and big battle at sea when in fact, I feel this film’s story is more aimed about the men in the boat.

Our film starts with something we’ve seen far too often. A man who travels far around the world seeking another man’s story that only he can tell, the traveller writing it down word for word and will be sure to tell the world. Sigh.  

You find straight away there is no real reason for these characters from the get-go. This doesn’t change as the film goes back and forth as if we were curious about how our storyteller is going (facepalm). I’ll warn you early. The film’s pacing is very S L O W and the film’s characters are D U L L.

The main highlight of the film is the picture and audio. The picture is clean and colour is bright/crisp but the price is you can tell when the green screen is in use- which has been used in huge amounts. When we see a group of men in a boat it’s pretty easy to tell what’s real and what’s fake in every shot. 

The audio is a winner on blu-ray with an outstanding and enjoyable effects. The sound of our whale provides many great shakes and rattles as it torments our confused crew members.

The film’s story I’m shocked to say really disappointed me. We have many characters continuing arguing like children and at times we go in circles and side plots which I feel the movie would have flowed much better without.

This film has no re-watch value or new experiences. If you seek a good film set at the sea, I can suggest Master And Commander (Russell Crowe) or of course Captain Jack Sparrow. Savvy?

4.4/10

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Review Written by Peter Walkden