What's wrong with Master And Commander?

[Bartwald]

I'm confused: renting it I didn't expect to get a drama that could as well take place in one room instead of in the middle of the ocean!

I don't know then whether I'm just pissed off that I let myself be seduced by the trailers for a different movie or whether it's the movie that's bad? It bored me and it made me scratch my head too many times and for all the wrong reasons - why the hell were the surgeries so overused here to break the viewers' hearts? If they stuck with the little boy at the beginning (and it really was painful!) or even with this and then the brain surgery - I could live with it; but as it was, the movie's all dramatic moments happened on the table instead of at sea! Alright, I forgot about the dude vanishing among the waves when Russell chooses 'the lesser evil' but there's still something wrong with the balance here, right?

I know at least one person here on the boards who's going to disagree with me about this, but if there's more of you - please tell me I'm wrong! I want to be, in fact - Peter Weir is not just a hack, dammit!

[Heineken Skywalker]

I liked it a little more than you, but you're right, it's not great. And while I appreciated the realism of the sometimes humdrum existence of men at sea, the movie could've used a little more action & excitement. Maybe in the sequel?
I'm glad I saw it, but once was probably enough.
6.5/10

[nomatchcheck]

I'm going to disagree!!! There is nothing wrong with a film about friendship and commanding:) Why to blame Weir for showing a human side rather than marine battles??
I liked the details depicted in the movie - the sailors daily routine, the sketches of birds and beetles- all the minute particulars of the characters' existence.

Maybe it could have taken more action and excitement - but it still, you can't say it didn't have any of it, can you?

[Bartwald]

It had very little action and excitement for my taste. Then again, I was falling asleep so many times during this movie that maybe I omitted its best action sequences because of a quick nap. Possible.

[Fenril]

I liked it, but I can definitely see why people who see it expecting an action movie would be sorely dissapointed --action is simply not the point of this movie, rather it is simply a story of science, joys-of-learning and friendship in rought times.

It's kind of ironic that a lot of people fall asleep with this movie, given that Weir seems to have done everything in his effort to give the whole movie a rather oniric atmosphere (check out the opening and closing montages; it's really like walking in the middle of someone else's dream).

And I agree with you about Weir... but come to think of it most of his movies seem to be mismarketed. For instance, I imagine that people who watch "Picnic at hanging rock" expecting a straight horror movie will be slighlty bored by it, too.

[Bartwald]

Fenril said:

...come to think of it most of his movies seem to be mismarketed. For instance, I imagine that people who watch "Picnic at hanging rock" expecting a straight horror movie will be slighlty bored by it, too.

Yes! Why would some people call it a horror I never understood! Probably all Weir movies should be called, well... 'Weir movies'; not horrors, not comedies (Truman Show, right?), not even dramas - just movies by this weird Weir dude. I remember watching Witness for the first time - advertised as A New Harrison Ford Blockbuster, no less - and thinking 'WTF? It's not like any other Ford movie, this!' Now it's one of my favourite films made by Weir but back then I was pissed. Same goes for The Mosquito Coast, by the way - another brave step Ford made (one of his best and craziest roles there!) and completely misunderstood by the audience!