Captain Philips
Oh dear - I was really looking forward to this
It wasn't awful, but nothing like the rave reviews it's had. 2 problems for me:
- I never really related to the main bad guy. A lot was made about the simmering tension in his scenes with Tom Hanks, but they never really flew for me. Come to think of it, I didn't really find Cptn P all that involving.
- Lesser whinge: the script totally glossed over all the practicalities of the action. For example:
- I couldn't understand why the US Navy didn't just block the lifeboat's path back to Somalia. They kept saying they needed more time. There probably was a good reason, but I'd like to have been told this. The film had enough slack to add in some dialog to explain stuff like this.
- The navy started 800 miles away - which sounded like waaaaay too far to be any help. But then turned up the next day - or so it seemed; suddenly they're a key part of the action.
- A ship sails through unprotected international waters with known piracy in recent year. They're americans, the most heavily-armed nation in the world. So why didn't they even carry small arms?
Again, there's probably a good reason, so flipping well tell us!!!
But overall, I was just generally unmoved. Well, except for the sick-bay scene at the end. I've no idea why, but that was a very emotional moment, Hanks may have earned his pay in that one scene.
