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Review #591 of 365
Movie Review of The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep (2007) [PG] 111 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $9.00
Where Viewed: United Artists Denver Pavilions Stadium 15, Denver, CO
When Seen: 26 December 2007
Time: 7:30 pm
DVD Release Date: 8 April 2008 (click date to purchase or pre-order)
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Directed by: Jay Russell (Ladder 49)
Screenplay by: Robert Nelson Jacobs (Flushed Away) Based on the book The Water Horse by Dick King-Smith
Featured Cast (Where You Might Remember Him/Her From):
Alex Etel (Millions) • Emily Watson (Miss Potter) • Priyanka Xi (debut) • Ben Chaplin (The New World) • David Morrissey (The Reaping) • Brian Cox (Zodiac)
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The folks at Walden Media who brought us, and won't ever seem to let us forget it, the film version of
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, have been 'hurriedly' scurrying about seemingly with the goal of adapting every piece of literature having anything to do with children to the big screen. The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep based on Dick King-Smith's book is the most recent. Whether the fault of the adaptation by Robert Nelson Jacobs or the original story itself (apologies for I haven't read it), the film version is sadly lacking on many fronts. The film story unfolds as an elderly gentlemen in a pub, who all-too-predictably turns out to be the elder version of the story's main character Angus MacMorrow (Brian Cox), invites to wayward travelers to hear a fantastic tale of the origins of the Loch Ness monster. As they listen, he flashes back on his childhood to the days when he found the alabaster-covered egg that eventually hatches into the flipper-finned, waddling sea creature of legend and how he became Crusoe's closest friend. If the flashback story weren't trite enough for you, well, then everything about the young Angus's childhood should be. His father, though he's unable to accept it, has been killed in the war, leaving his mother Anne (Emily Watson) to run the enormous household and raise two children, Angus (Alex Etel) and his sister, Kirstie (Priyanka Xi). To make for tension in the story, a British regiment led by a certain Captain Hamilton (David Morrissey) has been set up to billet at the home and secure the channels of the lochs to prevent invasion by German submarines. Rumor has it that his regiment has been sent there to be as far from active duty as possible so that the precious Hamilton won't be harmed in battle. Meanwhile, Anne MacMorrow finally decided to hire some help to keep the house in working order in the form of the way-too-mysterious Lewis Mowbray (Ben Chaplin).
…a film aimed at kids with cute posters that isn't likely to hold their interest very long…
He's got a vicious scar and a stoic personality. Surely, he's hiding something. So, when Angus's egg hatches in his father's workshop Angus has been inhabiting since his father left for war but which his mother has just given over to Mr. Mowbray as his quarters, there's bound to be conflict and mayhem. The little creature needs food and lots of it. While showing signs of dog-like intelligence, the creature is as mischievous and curious as a chimpanzee. Still, given its small size, roughly that of a baby pig, it makes for a wonderful sampling of lunch for the regiment's cook's bull dog named Churchill. Mayhem ensues as Angus tries to raise Crusoe, so-named from the spine of one of his father's books about a man stranded on an island, without detection. The film's one attempt at a humorous action sequence involves the escaped Crusoe dashing about the house trying to avoid being eaten by Churchill who ends up running across the elegantly set dinner table arranged by Captain Hamilton to honor the debt of gratitude by the regiment to Mrs. MacMorrow whom, it seems, he's beginning to fancy. Eventually, though, Kirstie and then Lewis will be let in on the secret, and it will be Lewis that reveals that Crusoe is likely a Water Horse, a creature of legend so rare in its being that only one can live on earth at a time. Both father and mother, just before it dies, it lays a single egg that hatches later replenishing the line. Food and freedom, eventually permit Crusoe to grow into a towering beast the size of a small dinosaur and ready to live in the Loch and become the famously spotted creature.
If there was magic in the original story, it must have been drained, mostly, for this adaptation, because, whether we've just seen this story manifested in different ways too many times far better before—some have compared the story to E.T. which is in a different plane of 'magical' films altogether—or the elements of added danger just smacked too much of being contrived, The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep just wasn't very enjoyable. Unlike the immensely powerful connection between E.T. and Elliot, there is almost nothing beyond talk about how "I'm his father" or "I saved his life" between Angus and Crusoe. Well, trying to compare an advanced traveler from another planet to an oversized pet sea-monster really isn't a fair comparison in the first place. The story takes an overly dark yet painfully obvious turn for the worse when the military starts testing its guns by firing shells capable of destroying a submarine into the loch. Generally doing as they do in all creature movies, the military is all about killing that which it cannot understand. In all fairness, at first, they don't know that Crusoe is in the loch. Still, it was at about this time that most adults and kids alike will begin to squirm and need a bathroom break from which they might not return. Even if the story doesn't establish a deep and loving bond between the two, most parents and guardians will not want their kids to see Crusoe narrowly escaping being blown to smithereens with a screaming Alex begging Hamilton to stop the shelling.
While not receiving top-billing in the credits, the entire picture rests on the shoulders of Alex Etel, the younger Angus. Some will recall his remarkable performance in the remarkable but unheralded film entitled Millions. Here too, the kid demonstrates his leading man capacity despite his tender age. Unfortunately, the role and the chemistry of the story don't offer him as more nor anything close to as complicated with which to work. The net result is a bit of a cartoonish character portrayed about as well as could be expected. Extending this theme, actually, both Ben Chaplin and Emily Watson deliver fine performances for nearly cardboard characters. It was the unexpected Priyanka Xi as Angus's sister, that seemed the most human and warm of anyone in the film. Alas, she has about 10 lines in the film. Sadly, Jay Russell's Water Horse is one of those pictures aimed at kids with cute posters that isn't likely to hold their interest very long, and certainly won't entertain their parents or guardians long enough to justify the high cost of going to a movie with the family these days.
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Cast Members
Alex Etel • Emily Watson • Priyanka Xi
Ben Chaplin • David Morrissey • Brian Cox
Director
Jay Russell
Writer
Robert Nelson Jacobs
Review-lite
The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep (2007) [max of 150 words]
While not receiving top-billing in the credits for Jay Russell's The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, the entire picture rests on the shoulders of Alex Etel as Angus MacMorrow, a young Scottish lad who finds an alabaster egg that hatches into the mythical sea creature of Loch Ness. Unfortunately, the role and the chemistry of the story don't offer him much with which to work. The net result is a bit of a cartoonish character portrayed about as well as could be expected. Sadly, Jay Russell's Water Horse is one of those pictures aimed at kids with cute posters that isn't likely to hold their interest very long, and certainly won't entertain their parents or guardians long enough to justify the high cost of going to a movie with the family these days.
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