Oh... MY... GOD!!! This may have been the most boring movie I've ever sat through. No, I take that back, the most boring movie I've ever sat through was "Princess Mononoke." "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" isn't that boring, but it's close. Still, for two hours and fifteen minutes, I watched "Master and Commander" bored to tears, hoping that it would end soon.
I only saw "Master and Commander" because it got an Oscar nomination for Best Picture, and I always make it a point to see all the Best Picture nominees before the winners are announced. Well, I saw it, and though it was a well-made film, I'm sorry, but I don't see why it got the Oscar nomination. I was bored by all three films in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, but I can see why they were nominated. I can't say that about "Master and Commander."
Okay, maybe I'm being a little harsh. Visually, it's not so bad. The ships are very striking, and although I'm no expert on the period it was set in, it looked very authentic. Other than that, the only thing that worked for me was the acting and the few moments of blood and gore (as much blood and gore you can find in a PG-13 movie, at least). I guess the dialogue is pretty good, too. I mean, it's not something you'd hear in a Tarantino film, but it's pretty cool.
Like I said, the movie DOES have some good acting. I'm not a big Russell Crowe fan, he seems like a real asshole, but there's no denying that he's a very talented actor. In this movie, he's as good as you'd expect a great actor to be. Then there's Paul Bettany. He's one of my favorite character actors. He was in "A Beautiful Mind" with Crowe (that's also where Bettany met his wife, the beautiful Jennifer Connelly), and he was excellent as "Chaucer" in "A Knight's Tale." Out of all of the characters in the film, Paul Bettany's is the most interesting, and he plays him perfectly. Making his acting debut is Max Pirkis, who plays the one-armed little boy. I don't know if he plans to continue acting, but I hope he does. The little guy has a lotta talent.
"Master and Commander" was directed by Peter Weir, a strange choice to direct this kinda film. He's the guy who directed "The Truman Show," "Green Card," "Dead Poets Society," "The Mosquito Coast," and "Witness." He's a good director, but I really didn't like this movie. As for the script, it was written by Peter Weir & John Collee (Peter Weir writes a lot of the films he directs, as for Collee, I'm not familiar with his previous work), and it was based on the novels by Patrick O'Brian. I don't know anything about the novels, so I can't say if the movie does a good job of adapting the books. I can only tell you that the movie didn't make me very interested in reading them.
Look, it's not that I think it's a horrible movie. It can't be that bad, 'cause critics love it, and it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. Still, it bored the shit outta me, and I didn't like it.
Scale of 1-10: 3