Watch carefully... immediately after the luxury liner Poseidon has been hit by a huge tidal wave and capsized, an inflated life-raft can be seen inexplicably floating by the upturned vessel. Surely the makers of this slick big-budget disaster flick won't bring this conveniently into play at the end of the film, will they? Well, yes, they do. And this is the problem with Poseidon: throughout the film, the audience is expected to accept far too much without question.

When the survivors of the accident, on their way to the surface, face a flooded compartment, they swim underwater aimlessly until they happen upon a pocket of air. Convenient, huh?

When they are trapped in a rapidly flooding air conditioning shaft and need to undo some screws in order to escape drowning, a necklace makes a handy screwdriver. How fortunate is that?

When the only escape route is totally flooded, the ship shifts and the passageway becomes clear. What a stroke of luck!

Now don't get me wrong; I didn't hate Poseidon. In fact, I actually enjoyed Wolfgang Pieterson's update of the 70s classic quite a bit. I just had to completely suspend my belief for an hour and a half in order to do so. Sure, the film is cheesy, full of one-dimensional characters, has a flawed script, and lacks a soul, but it is spectacular, has more than its fair share of white-knuckle moments, and features some superb visual effects.

Let's face it, this remake was never going to outdo the original (and did anyone really think it would?),which benefited from REAL star power and a decent script. But as far as dumb popcorn adventures go, Poseidon is worth a watch—if only for the amazing moment when the wave strikes the ship and all hell breaks loose.

The great Wolfgang Petersen is reduced to directing a remake of a disaster movie. That's the sad truth. This is an unimaginative by-the-book disaster movie, and he can't inject any more than a few action scenes into this.

At the beginning, we're introduced to the characters. Luckily this goes by fast and we're quickly into the action. The ship is hit by a rogue wave and turn upside down as in the original. Kurt Russell and Josh Lucas co-lead the group. Kevin Dillon is the cartoony annoying Lucky Larry. Also in the group are Jacinda Barrett, Richard Dreyfuss, and Emmy Rossum.

The characters are uninvolving. The trick is to pick one lead character, and tell it from that character's POV. When you've got Kurt Russell and Josh Lucas, either one would do. Get the audience involved making one of those our lead.

The action scene are silly over the top. But there's value in that. It's just they couldn't possibly save this movie.

Starting with the good things, it is brilliant technically and visually. The cinematography is great, the editing is crisp, the special effects are superb and the set-pieces are somewhat exciting. Plus the music score is pretty good.

However, it is very much inferior to the wonderful 1972 film in terms of script, story and acting.

The script is clichéd and cheesy at times, the story is bloated as a result of cramming too many plots and situations in, the pacing is uneven being rushed one minute and draggy at other parts and the characters lack depth. Also the acting isn't great, Josh Lucas is a bland lead while Kurt Russell tries his best to elevate the adventure but the script sets him adrift. It is pretty much the same with Richard Dreyfuss and Emmy Rossum too. Overall, was great visually but it is bloated and forgettable. In some ways it is an example of a movie that is all style and little substance. 4/10 Bethany Cox