User reviews

I thought OK. The same people behind that terrific movie "Rush". How bad can it be? The answer is very. It is simply mind boggling that the same people who made the outstanding Rush could fail so badly. And not just fail, but fail at the very basics.

It is a bit shocking to see such a technically inept movie in this day and age. The matte shots were horrible cheesy. The CGI was cartoonish and unconvincing. The acting was even worse. Hemsworth has no idea what New Englanders sound like, and he delivered his lines like it was a high school play. The others weren't much better.

The script was beyond amateurish. The conflict between first mate and captain was artificial and manufactured, illogical and irrational. The injected political correctness was annoying. Let's get this straight. No one at the time thought killing whales was bad. Why should they? They provided the necessities of life at the time.

In sum, every technical detail of this movie was among the worst I've ever seen in a "major" feature. Considering the people even involved in the production, it is doubling shocking.

Terrible script going absolutely nowhere, with awful acting throughout excepting Cyllian Murphy, trooping on like a true harpooner; served with a frantic editing to make up for lack of story and sentimental music in an effort to infuse some passion where there's only a bloody mess of pixels and digital effects, albeit in 3D.

There's no Heart and most certainly no Sea here. It turns John Huston's adequate 1956 film adaptation of the Mellville "homeric epic" into a masterpiece by comparison. Into the Heart of the Sea is bland, artificial and presumptuous unlike anything Ron Howard has shot before. Do yourself a favor: go back to Huston or even better, read Moby Dick!

Movie Review!!

Starring the yummy Chris Helmsworth

I'm just over 30 minutes in and will already give my review.

I read this book, In the Heart of the Sea, the Story of the USS Essex. It was probably one of my favorite books I have ever read. AND!!! It's a true story. Why they don't let us read things like this in school, I'll never know. I would have aced history but I'm getting off track here.

It's a story about whaling. These men would kill whales for their blubber which was basically the oil that was used for lamps/lighting. It was essential to the then modern living.

Anyway, the book has a lot of information on what goes into prepping for their trips. The selection of the boats, staff (including supernumeraries which are young boys who have, ahem, no essential function or these trips. Women are not allowed here), the food including chickens, etc. the movie has exactly zero of this.

I'll cut to the chase because I could write a novella on this.

The movie is an expected flop. The CGI is obvious and amateurish. For example, during a major storm, the background is violent but the sailors are still standing on the ship without even holding on to anything. If you've ever been on a boat during even moderate weather, even the most seasoned boater will tell you to always, always hold on to something.

The movie doesn't work on a lot of levels. The special effects suck, the acting is horrid (sorry, Chris, it is), and the whole movie is just poorly done. 💩💩

Don't waste your time on this %#$* show but I strongly recommend the book.

Movie grade: D and I'm being generous Book grade: A+

Oh where to begin to review this steaming turd of a movie. We've come to expect so much from Ron Howard, but he really missed the mark on this one. The actual true story is so incredibly riveting, that nothing had to be done, but put it up on the silver screen for all to behold. There was no love story. There was no blue-blood vs. working man conflict. The captain of the ship in reality had paid his dues and earned his position....a position on an old, beat-up vessel. What about the story of torching the Galapagos islands after collecting three Galapagos islands tortoises...there's a story within a story, and a good one at that! How about the fact that over half of the crew on this ship would have been of dark complexion (and wasn't 2015 the year there wasn't a single black Oscars nominee?? What a missed opportunity.) What about the dynamic between the fortunate class of connected Nantucket blue-bloods vs. the less fortunate non-Nantucket crew, and how that played out on the whale boats after the ship sank? How about explaining the effort of salvaging goods from a sinking Whale Ship? How about the decision to sail East to death vs West to the Marqueses or Hawaiian Islands because the crew thought there were still cannibals living out there? So much wasted potential traded for a convoluted, confusing, go-nowhere, CGI-bloated piece of bleeeeech. Ron Howard! C'mon!!!!

Visuals:

Looks like the DOP was drunk or blind. (or the two combined) Wtf are these fish eye shots, in between some dudes legs, and water shots that look like they've been shot on go pro, (maybe) cause they wanted to spend more money on their super duper f***ng brilliant CGI. Well, hasn't really worked. I just assume that the both lighting and camera department started they're day thinking "we should just figure out how to make it look even worse." And then someone would come up with an idea, yeah, lets get a shot of this f***ing plant, because there is no reason for that and it looks like sh*t, also we won't even bother trying to make it look bearable.

Acting:

More s*it was given by the actors who were a part of "Zombievers". Everyone should just admit that Thor is not that good of an actor.

Director probably wasn't even on set most of time.

This film is a torture, if you have enemies that should be your revenge. Nobody should waste their time on such a low quality product, it is like spitting at your audience and expecting them to enjoy it as if it was a sugary treat.

Read the book and be happy.

I am stunned at how many people have given this a good review, this movie is terrible. Bad acting, really bad CGI, and it really doesn't tell the true story of the Essex at all.

Chris Helmsworth putting on a Bostonian accent, is worse then Mark Walberg trying NOT to have a Bostonian accent. This movie started bad, continued to be bad, and I left before it ended bad.

My advice, don't waste your time on this film, Ron Howard should be ashamed. For the amount of budget this film had, there is no excuse for the bad CGI. I've seen better graphics from a SciFy channel, made to be campy Sharknado style film.

I'm sad that Ron Howard has fallen from grace with this one, he's such a great talented film maker, and this is just no where near his caliber.

Watched this free out of bored curiosity, regretted it even though fast forward most of film. Not even "made for TV stream" worthy. Complete farce of whale hunting & sea survival. Alleged to inspire fictional Moby Dick but historical tales & outdated science rebuts this utter WASTE of time.

If one is to make film of America's long generations whale hunting era, show real horror of cruel methods used in whale hunting - many still remain now. Whalers used Explosives, rubber balloons tethered to lances & huge harpoons, heavy nets with hooks to drown young. 1st Whales targeted were newborn calves & mothers who all died horrid screaming deaths trying to protect their precious young.

This film shows Wright whales who dive deep & evolved with dense skull for water pressure protection. Many whales SAVED whalers lives by lifting hunters to surface to breathe. Wright Whales are so gentle they swam up to their murderers. Few male whales rammed big ships with their heads, having witnessed prolonged bloody slaughter of their entire families that caused miles of whales blood flooding open sea. NONE of these truths are in this fake film.

There WERE so many millions of whales in the American seas that whalers literally walked on whales backs before spearing them in eyes or blow holes, then butchering them ALIVE.

I fast forwarded this film with CGI whale breaches & tail slapping ships- ALL FICTION. Whales breach (leap out is sea) for joy - not while being butchered. Whale tail slaps are for communication & sometimes defense against other orcas. No whale crushed whalers boats with their tails bc whales were trying to escape barbaric prolonged slaughter.

Killing a whale takes HOURS & many spears, torturous harpoons, weights & explosive devices in past & today. And for what?? Whale blubber melted for Cheap soap & margarine; meat used for mostly cheap pet food. Show those facts. Again, NOT in this insipid film which repeatedly states "oil" is reason for whaling, false justification that whale oil was necessity of colonial life. Today, Custom made Perfume industry still uses 1 ounce of rare whale brain oil for highest bidder (shown in Avatar 2).

All Acting is below average. Viewer has NO pity for unrealistic "4 month" survival of stranded whalers who all lived without fresh water. Labeling any whale as "Demon" now is despicable since Moby Dick whale is pure fiction per author.

WHY this film was made is more proof of manure merit, time wasting, "viewer refund demands" films Hollywood continues to green light. Enough time wasted on writing this review too.

Maybe this movie target group is kids who watch Marvel movies but it's an insult for everyone else. Good cinematography but everything else sucks. The characters look fake and the dialogs are awful. Chris Hemsworth plays this super cool macho guy who walks and talks like a super model with gel on his hair. This should be an epic movie but instead is just a flat film for DVD only release. With all that money the script should have been much better.

The movie is bad on many levels: CG is bad Acting one dimensional Added political correctness , annoying and UN-necessary. Just to appease interest groups. I do not recommend watching this movie. Instead go watch Moby Dick with Gregory Peck great fantastic Art.

While the movie is bad there is one reviewer here who has rated the movie as one star and disgusting just because its about whaling or killing whales. Well idiot if you don't like whaling don't watch the movie. Reviewing the movie means watching it and then rating it about how well it depict and portrayed the content. The fact that an idiot like you went to watch a story that you don't like does not make the movie bad. But it is a bad movie!

If you don't like Chris or whales it was just so boring