I watched this film yesterday as it premiered where I lived in theaters, and I am still taken aback by how impressed I was. I’d been excited to see this movie since the trailer came out ages ago, but I went into it having fairly neutral expectations. I didn’t expect it to be amazing, but I didn’t think, or I rather hoped, that it wouldn’t be bloody awful.
I rarely watch a movie in the theaters that affects me the way this one did. I loved the cinematography and the fact that the CGI wasn’t overboard like in most films, and whilst the beginning was quite slow, it picked up quickly and had me hooked. I’m someone that gets anxious in movie theaters, someone that lets their mind drift because of nerves, but this movie wouldn’t even let me think of that. It was way too intense.
Whilst at some parts, I didn’t exactly understand what was happening, I found myself not minding it. Usually in films, I feel like the script is written to explain everything that the audience may not understand. You’ll have a character explaining to someone else what they’re meant to do, even if it’s their job and in reality, they’d be experienced enough to not need an explanation on every step they’re doing. When films do that, it takes away part of the realistic aspect. So, since I don’t work at an oil rig, there were moments where I didn’t know what they were really doing because they were stating things without an explanation, but I loved that, because they know their job, they don’t need a step by step explanation. They do as they’re told because they already know, which added to the authenticity of this film.Â
The acting, in my opinion anyway, was great and the script wasn’t overly cheesy, as I find myself rolling my eyes at a lot of movies nowadays because of overdone and ridiculous lines. Dylan O’Brien even changed his accent a bit, as far as I could hear, and in fact, his acting was so different from his other work that I’ve seen, that besides the occasional humor he held, I didn’t recognize his character as someone he’d already played. This was someone new, and to me, he constantly impresses me with his acting abilities. I can’t wait to see him next in American Assassin and returning to The Death Cure and Teen Wolf. I’m also definitely fond of the longer hair and rougher look, however, that being said, this movie is far from being about appearance. It’s about an actual disaster that didn’t happen too long ago, and I think the fact that this movie wasn’t a fictional piece, that it was based on something real, made it all the more heartbreaking.
Whenever a character died, I felt saddened. When one character had to pull glass out of his foot and when another had his leg stuck painfully between two objects and had to be pulled out, I had to look away because it pained me to watch. It wasn’t the fact that it was gory, it was the sense of feeling pain and heartache for the characters.
This movie was brilliantly heartbreaking, leaving me shaken up as I left the theaters with my friends. One of my friends even cried, and the movie received a standing ovation as it ended, which is something rarely seen here. In fact, I’ve never experienced it quite like this.
And that, in my opinion, is how you make a good film.
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