Despite its ominous and somewhat true title, The Burning Sea is a disaster movie following a husband and wife trying to survive, well, a disaster. Now, there are basically two approaches when it comes to this genre. You can either go for the big blockbuster vibe or you can center your story on a couple of characters and their survival. As we already mentioned, the movie we’re going to be talking about today uses the second approach. However, don’t worry, this won’t be a melodramatic movie full of emotional milking.
The Burning Sea rivals any Hollywood movie when it comes to the visuals or production values. The special effects look really good although I wish there were more of them. I wanted that fucking sea to burn! Probably because the same crew behind this movie previously made two very similar and solid disaster movies. The Wave and The Quake are definitely worth checking out. The cast did a great job with a pretty thin script. I mean, I don’t know any of these actors but they did a good job. Although one of them does look like Ronald Koeman, former manager of Barcelona.
Sofia works for a company focused on underwater rescue operations. Her boyfriend Stian is also a sea-faring man, working on an oil rig in The North Sea. After a couple of relaxing days on the shore, Sofia is called to assist in a rescue operation. A huge structure quickly sank to the bottom of the sea taking with it its entire crew. And so, the race with time begins.
Overall, The Burning Sea offers a familiar and quite predictable story with a couple of cool gimmicks. The scientific and fact-based way they approached the disaster was really refreshing. It raised the stakes and made the whole movie feel more realistic and intense. This is definitely not Skyscraper or San Andreas, both of which feature The Rock in a lead role. And it’s not quite Deepwater Horizon, a more intense movie based on real events.
I think that the first part of The Burning Sea was really good, especially the scenes with that underwater robot. An underwater robot that’s fucking real by the way! Yes, Eelie is real! Some of the scenes where it’s exploring underwater wrecks felt like they belong in a science fiction movie. And each time I had to snap back to reality, realizing that we live in the fucking future. However, as things start to escalate, the story becomes increasingly predictable.
Plus, they really hammered in that female hero thing at times. Please, do not let this discourage you from checking out The Burning Sea as it’s really just a minor flaw.
Director: John Andreas Andersen
Writers: Harald Rosenløw-Eeg, Lars Gudmestad
Cast: Kristine Kujath Thorp, Henrik Bjelland, Rolf Kristian Larsen, Anders Baasmo Christiansen, Bjørn Floberg
Fun Facts: The company that manufactures the underwater robot Ellie, actually called Eelume is Eelume Subsea Interventions.
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IMDb Link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12753120/
