“2010: Moby Dick”
Directed by: Trey Stokes
Starring: Barry Bostwick and Rene O’Connor
Studio: The Asylum
Unrated – Contains scenes of creature violence and some language.
Okay. The package says The Asylum. There are a few expectations that come with reviewing and watching a movie made by The Asylum. First, you can’t expect to take it seriously. Second, you have to realize it was made on a very small budget and approach it with that in mind. Third, just get ready to turn off your brain and prepare to waste some time. If you follow all these rules to the tee then you’ll not be disappointed in “2010: Moby Dick.“ Actually, you’ll probably come out of it in the end a bit shocked and surprised that it wasn’t as bad as you thought it was going to be.
“2010: Moby Dick” is ” a modern adaptation of the classic novel (that tells the story) of the captain of a high tech submarine and his obsessive quest to destroy the enormous prehistoric whale that maimed him.” I could hardly believe it, but The Asylum actually came pretty close to hitting the goal with this film.
Herman Melville’s classic is actually adapted for the screen by one of The Asylum’s main producers named Paul Bales. It’s very interesting that he put a personal stake in “2010: Moby Dick“. “Moby Dick” must be one of Bales’ favorite novels or films. I’ve got to say that he did a pretty decent job adapting it for modern times. I’ve never read the book or even seen a movie version of it, but I did a little Wikipedia cheating before writing this and it looked as if it follows the original novel pretty close. Obviously, there are some changes but it didn’t seem like too many.
Let’s chat a bit about the acting in “2010: Moby Dick.“ The first thing I think when I hear that a new Asylum film is being made is “What old TV / movie actor or ‘nostalgic’ celebrity will they feature in this one?” I was pretty impressed with this one. Veteran actor Barry Bostwick really puts his all into this in his role as Captain Ahab. You can totally see that he took this job as serious as he takes any of them. He mixed new and modern dialogue almost perfectly with that of some of the classic dialogue that appeared to come straight out of Melville’s classic. It was a bit awkward seeing him spit those Shakespearean lines out in front of a backdrop of nuclear submarine consoles and equipment, but he pulled it off. Renee O’Connor (“Xena: Warrior Princess”) plays the strong and intelligent female-character of Dr. Michelle Herman. She is obviously taking the place of Ishmael from the original book. This is one of those big changes from the book, seeing that the character of Ishmael was a male and Dr. Herman is a female. Her last name of Herman HAS to be a tribute to author Herman Melville. The Asylum regular Matt Lagan adequately takes on the role of Capt. John “Boomer” Enderby, who served with Ahab and has now been commissioned to hunt him down. Now don’t get me wrong, there’s still the same bad acting you find in most Asylum movies but it’s surrounded with enough decent performances to almost even it out.
Now we move on to the special effects of “2010: Moby Dick.“ They’re about standard for The Asylum. You have CGI and green screen that looks like it was done circa 1990. The blurring and blending of CGI objects with their backgrounds is pretty sketchy. They’re not as bad as they could be so let’s just say they’re at least SyFy Channel quality. I guess that would make sense being that SyFy picks all these up to be shown on the channel.
I will give The Asylum credit for their cover art. They never fail to have eye-catching images on the front of their DVDs. This one features Moby Dick heading straight-up to the surface of the water to attack a military ship in the classic style of the “Jaws” posters.
If you enjoy the Saturday night movies on SyFy Channel or other straight-to-DVD sci-fi / horror films then this movie is for you. If you’re more into foreign films or stuff like “The English Patient”, “The King’s Speech”, or “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin” then you’ll probably find “2010: Moby Dick” very hard to sit through. Everybody needs a break sometime. This sort of movie gives you the opportunity to unwind and doesn’t ask you to think for an hour and a half. Enjoy the time.
