Post by Radrook Admin on Jan 28, 2021 8:01:32 GMT -5
My Opinion on the film Sea Fever
Plot
After rowing back, they discover the creature has released the boat. They lower the nets and bring up a large catch of fish, lifting the crew's spirits. Siobhan and Johnny flirt and discover they are interested in each other. Johnny develops a fever, which Siobhan suspects is caused by an infection, but he refuses to let his hand be checked.
While the group celebrates that night, Johnny declares he is going for a swim and is stopped by Ciara and Siobhan. Seeing him rub his eyes, Siobhan checks Johnny's eyes with a flashlight and sees something moving inside. As he washes his face, Johnny goes blind. His eyeballs burst, releasing tiny organisms that slither down the drain, entering the ship's water system. He dies. Omid realizes Sudi is in the shower and tries to stop him.
Thinking Omid is joking, Sudi does not turn off the water until the waterborne creatures bite him. Gerard, Siobhan, and Omid check the water filtration system and find it has been contaminated by the creatures, which have eaten through all the filters. Siobhan realizes the creatures are the larvae of the enormous sea creature, whose eggs fill the slime.
Siobhan, a PhD student studying deep sea faunal behavioral patterns, purchases a place on the fishing trawler the Niamh Cinn Óir, manned by a crew of six: skipper Gerard, his wife Freya, ship engineer Omid Hamilton Accie, Johnny, Ciara, and Sudi Hamilton Accie. As they set off, the Coast Guard alerts them that their planned destination, which is rich with fish, is in an exclusion zone. Unbeknownst to the others, Gerard takes them into the zone anyway, as he needs a large haul of fish on this outing to keep the ship.
In the exclusion zone, the boat runs into an unknown, shoal-like object and stops. Omid discovers strange breaches in the hull that exude a blue-green slime. Gerard thinks they are barnacles. As Siobhan has diving gear onboard for her research, Gerard sends her armed with a knife to cut the boat free. Underwater, she sees the things stuck to the boat are the tentacles of an enormous bio-luminescent organism below. Hearing this, Gerard thinks it may be a newly discovered form of giant squid.
The crew attempt to capture it with the net, but the creature is too heavy. While releasing the net, Johnny's sleeve is caught in the machinery. Although freed, his hand is sliced by the rope, which is contaminated by slime. Siobhan sees another ship on the horizon. She, Gerard, and Johnny row to it, seeking help. Onboard, they find the bodies of the crew in the cabin, with one man appearing to have had his eyes removed. Gerard says they must have succumbed to "sea fever" and orders Siobhan and Johnny not to tell the others.
The crew attempt to capture it with the net, but the creature is too heavy. While releasing the net, Johnny's sleeve is caught in the machinery. Although freed, his hand is sliced by the rope, which is contaminated by slime. Siobhan sees another ship on the horizon. She, Gerard, and Johnny row to it, seeking help. Onboard, they find the bodies of the crew in the cabin, with one man appearing to have had his eyes removed. Gerard says they must have succumbed to "sea fever" and orders Siobhan and Johnny not to tell the others.
After rowing back, they discover the creature has released the boat. They lower the nets and bring up a large catch of fish, lifting the crew's spirits. Siobhan and Johnny flirt and discover they are interested in each other. Johnny develops a fever, which Siobhan suspects is caused by an infection, but he refuses to let his hand be checked.
While the group celebrates that night, Johnny declares he is going for a swim and is stopped by Ciara and Siobhan. Seeing him rub his eyes, Siobhan checks Johnny's eyes with a flashlight and sees something moving inside. As he washes his face, Johnny goes blind. His eyeballs burst, releasing tiny organisms that slither down the drain, entering the ship's water system. He dies. Omid realizes Sudi is in the shower and tries to stop him.
Thinking Omid is joking, Sudi does not turn off the water until the waterborne creatures bite him. Gerard, Siobhan, and Omid check the water filtration system and find it has been contaminated by the creatures, which have eaten through all the filters. Siobhan realizes the creatures are the larvae of the enormous sea creature, whose eggs fill the slime.
Connie Nielsom
Review
I just finished watching the Sci-fi Horror film-film Sea Fever and you can watch it at the Sci-Fi movie section where I posted it. I didn't include this review there in order to avoid spoilers. That is revealing too much of the film and in that way spoiling your viewing experience.
Dimly Lit?
Most commentaries I have read on this film include a criticism of its dim lighting we the crew is shown interacting inside the vessel. I didn't find that to be a problem at all. Instead, to me, it added to the drama or mysterious atmosphere of some impending danger from the depths.
The Protagonist
The film's protagonist played by Danish actress, Connie Nielson, is a very attractive ginger or red-headed taciturn female whose hair color seems to make the crew extremely ill at ease because they consider it bad luck. I had never heard of that before, but OK. To me she was initially very pleasant to observe since I have a weakness for gingers. However, soon her aloofness and introspective attitude began to seem like smugness and a sort of a constant adulation of self-absorption with her own beauty. In fact, in many of the scenes, she seems more concerned with posing than in living the role. So to me, that was a very serious distraction.
The acting
The acting from the other crewmembers was good. Emotions were conveyed convincingly. However their different accents of Irish, English, and Scottish were interesting but a little bit distracting to my American-English-tuned ear. But that's just a subjective sort of thing. Maybe they find our American accents just as distracting.
Horror Film?
I honestly cannot say that the film succeeded in conveying the horror it might have intended as was the case with Alien and Aliens. . Maybe because the sea monster involved wasn't gruesome more aggressive enough but was satisfied just displaying its beautiful bioluminescence, undulating its delicate appendages and clinging to things like a barnacle while gently oozing out the infectious gel.
Suspension of Disbelief
In any event, the premonition that the crew felt concerning the red-headed protagonist seems to be confirmed as she gradually places the welfare of people onshore and even the monster's well-being as a unique creature deserving of life above that of the crew and even above herself.
Now that's where I had to terminate my suspension of disbelief and consider the proposition just plain ridiculous and unbelievable. The creature was a menace not merely to the vessel but to mankind itself as she had previously admitted. She had even disabled the vessel's engines leaving it dead in the water in order to prevent the crew from reaching shore while infected. Suddenly she begins caring about its survivability? Nawwww. Sorry but that's asking far too much from my suspension of disbelief ability.
Now that's where I had to terminate my suspension of disbelief and consider the proposition just plain ridiculous and unbelievable. The creature was a menace not merely to the vessel but to mankind itself as she had previously admitted. She had even disabled the vessel's engines leaving it dead in the water in order to prevent the crew from reaching shore while infected. Suddenly she begins caring about its survivability? Nawwww. Sorry but that's asking far too much from my suspension of disbelief ability.
Another instance was the protagonist touching and sniffing the gel which the creature was exuding and that was slowly eating away the vessel's wooden hull in order to determine its nature and then walking around with unwashed hands. It should be obvious that no scientific-minded person in his right mind would be that careless. In fact, that kind of carelessness when in the presence of potentially infectious unknown substances is a common-sense reaction not requiring any scientific training at all. So why show a trained scientist acting that way as if it were perfectly OK and believable? l