Biggest Event Horizon

Rating: 8/10 (4 January 2017)

Ahhh, this movie reminds me of when I was on an oil rig disaster and we were trapped with little oxygen left. Suddenly a mana man literally on fireshowed up out of nowhere and led us to the Coast Guard's helicopter. But, we wouldn't have made it out alive if he hadn't single-handedly held up the metal tower that would've surely crashed down on the transportand us. He stayed behind so we could escape. What a super-man he was
Oh, shoot. That was Man of Steel. This was real life.
My biggest regret in this movie was that I did not see it on the big screen. Well, okay, that and me making a poor joke reference up-front on an incident that claimed eleven lives and destroyed a tremendous amount more in the 3-month spill following.
The first half is setup leading to an inevitable disaster. Backing up, sadly, I didn't know any hardcore details of this incident. I knew of giant man-made oil spills and a BP-caused catastrophe(s,) I just didn't connect the dots here. It was just obvious from the get-go: this won't end well.
At any rate, normally when I watch a disaster-film, I am generally impatient and want to get to the goods. As soon as possible. Not this time, though. I found the first 50 or so minutes fascinating. A day in the life of these drillers and the technicalities of the oil drill rig was quite interesting and both believably and beautifully shot. And then. Then the mud hit the fan and the movie gets enormously and horrifically brutal.
And the movie never lets up. I already felt this was well-shot, albeit a grown-up Michael Bay film. And it continued to have great cinematography through explosions, massive damage and heroism. Again, it sounds like a Michael Bay movie, but again, it was far more mature filmmaking than that man-child will ever achieve.
Yes, I wish I saw this on the big screen and I wish more had. This movie was incredible with its grand-scale spectacle of the rig going haywire around these workers. But the movie is not without its flaws.
Yes, there are big-bad businessmen out there who make colossal-sized mistakesI know of a few in the many jobs I've had (though, not to cost lives, mercifully) and these were a tad over-the-top. And on the flipside, while I wasn't there, the heroism touched on the Man of Steel reference I made above. I truly hope this is what happened – the men going after other survivors to save lives and the "Captain" more concerned about his crew than his potentially life-threatening injuries.
I got past my own negative thoughts and even couldn't help but tear up at the end. Thankfully, the movie knew when to quit and not make this an unnecessary and padded three-hour, overblown (no pun) drama. It had just enough screen time to introduce and fascinate us, take us through bad- decisions/bad-outcomes and give us the on-screen facts I was looking forward to thorough. Especially since I was completely ignorant on these events.
Highly recommend this action/true-life film. More so for people with a HUGE entertainment center at home since it was sorely missed on the big screen.
***
Final thoughts: When I first heard the premise and especially since it was a true story of an oil rig tragedy, unfortunately, I dismissed it as "not my kind of movie." EVEN with my knowledge of the film starring John Malkovich, Kurt Russell and Marky Mark. This all when it was in theatres. Trust meI'm gonna rethink my life. This movie already impressed me wholeheartedly at home. It would've blown me away on the silver screen. (Again, no pun.)