A Poszeidon kaland

I wanted to see this film after I read from some reviews that as a continuation to The Poseidon Adventure, this flop was just grossly feeding on the commercial success of the original, but that as a separate piece of film-making, it was fine. No, ladies and gentlemen, it is not fine! Beyond the Poseidon Adventure fails at all levels. The script is terrible – if I was to write down all its illogical and stupid elements that come to mind right now, I would need few A4 pages. The characters are grotesque caricatures and the dialogues between them are painful as hell (Sally Field probably inherited the dumbest role). Irwin Allen’s direction is awful. This guy always needed a peer director who keeps the story on the right track (for The Poseidon Adventure, it was Ronald Neame; for The Towering Inferno, John Guillermin), but, as soon as Allen tried to go solo, it was a total disaster (e.g. The Swarm). The way he leads the actors is crazy – when one of the characters speaks, the other ones in the frame don’t know what to do, so they lose their gazes on the side somewhat, while waiting for their turn. Looking at everyone starring, it’s so obvious they’re trying their best survive the shooting so that they can receive a fat paycheck. And there’s a rumour that most of the budget was spent on the cast, because special effects in this flick only consist of original footage from The Poseidon Adventure (and used again and again by Allen, up to exhaustion) and of one unfounded explosion at the end, which serves as the final blow to the viewer who may have been foolish enough to expect the sequel to be a piece of film-making as sophisticated as part one. (2018.09.22)