Phantom (2013) Directed by Todd Robinson

Sometimes movies just feel utterly pointless. Some movies fail to make an impression, in any form or shape. This movie doesn't have a real point to it, it doesn't bring any excitement, it doesn't offer any entertainment. It simply feels like a big waste of time, even though the movie itself never becomes truly terrible with anything as well.

The most disappointing aspect about this movie is that it's lacking any form of creativity. Once you have seen any other given submarine movie, there is absolutely no reason to watch this one as well. It offers nothing new and is too much of a rehash of previous- more successful genre movies. The way i saw it; This movie is like "Crimson Tide", only this time told from a Soviet perspective, in a far less engaging and suspenseful way.

It just isn't a very well done film. The story seemed pretty basic and straightforward but the movie still manages to tell things in a very convoluted way, making it hard to ever get into the movie, or feel for any of its characters. I can't even tell you who's who in this movie. Sure, it has distinctive enough looking actors such as Ed Harris, David Duchovny and William Fichtner in it but everybody else looked absolutely the same to me. I didn't even recognized Lance Henriksen, which is perhaps the only real surprising thing I took from this movie.

Normally submarine movies at least manage to create some form of tension and sense of claustrophobia for their movie. I got absolutely nothing like that out of this one. It never felt like any of the characters were in real danger, or even miles away from home, deep under the ocean.

It's also a bit of a problem that you just never really sure what to expect from this movie. You never really know what direction it's heading at, which sounds like a very positive thing but it really isn't in this case though. It's hard to tell where the movie is heading at because it isn't really following a good and strong enough main plot line, which gets a bit annoying after a while, especially during the movie its first half. Is it going to be a political thriller? Is it going to be an action flick? Or maybe even a supernatural flick? Judging by the movie its first half, this all were perfectly plausible possibilities but the second half of the movie makes it very obvious that this is simply nothing more but a very conventional and formulaic submarine flick. Than why bother with having all that buildup in its first half, if it isn't going to amount to anything? Pretty disappointing and pointless all, if you would ask me.

On a more positive note; it at least still has Ed Harris in it. He's pretty good, as would be expected. David Duchovny seemed like a pretty odd choice though. When you think of a Soviet, KGB-agent, type of villain, to star opposite Ed Harris, who is the movie its 'hero', David Duchovny isn't exactly the first actor that springs to mind. But to be fair, he isn't terrible in this movie but he still feels miscast in his role, obviously.

It really isn't a terrible movie but there is absolutely no reason why you should ever watch it. Too pointless overall, not creative, not original and a far from effective movie, both story- and tension wise.

5/10

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