In The Heart Of The Sea - Movie Review

'In The Heart Of The Sea' takes on the true (?) events that inspired the story of Moby Dick. We see its author Herman Merville (Ben Wishaw) at the beginning of the movie persuading one of the remaining survivor of said event. The survivor (Brendan Gleeson) reluctantly try to avoid narrating through the years but was forced to do so because of circumstances. Merville just want to ask a description of the mammoth whale that is Moby Dick, but the story turned out to be more than that. And it became very personal to a point it test its heroes under what point can they do in order to survive.

The movie's greatest part is its worst flaw. Moby Dick wasn't given that much importance, and the filmmakers settle for just a whale who clearly has anger management issues than another character. As disappointing as it sounds, the symbolic whale from that of Herman Melville's original novel became a one-sided antagonist. But thankfully, ignoring Moby Dick settles for a more human focus. Moby Dick played more like a distraction to the story's protagonists than say a real villain, which is a real bummer since the movie literally sets him up not until the first hour. But the creature's final encounter proved that, and the filmmakers may imply it more like a hallucination sequence to Chris Hemsworth and the Essex crew. The nightmare they have faced for a single whale.

The first half was painfully slow, but the appearance of Moby Dick gladly picked it up. Much more of the character development was actually done in the second half of the movie, and the only time we see multiple sides of our heroes. The Herman Melville listening to the survivor was very unnecessary also, and tuned out to be a very weak plot device to tell such story.

Chris Hemsworth is at his most daring role yet. If you think he's good enough already in Rush, wait 'til you see him transform in a very unrecognizable and emotionally desperate turn here. Tom Holland proved yet again his acting prowess, as he can literally go toe-to-toe with Hemsworth's talent. And yes, he will definitely be great as Spider-Man in the future.

Ron Howard delivered a very humane portrait of a group who breaks each other's trust in order to strengthen it. 'In The Heart Of The Sea', especially in its final moments, is a painful watch, as we see the characters so freshly dressed at the beginning became their own monsters at the end.

The geek rates it 8/10!