Thor plus “Moby Dick” does not equal interesting.  

“In the Heart of the Sea,” directed by Ron Howard and starring Chris Hemsworth and Cillian Murphy, proves to be boring and mismanaged with only a few bright spots. 

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Owen Chase, a whaler, is hired as the first officer on the Essex. His Captain, George Pollard, Jr., is inexperienced and only hired him because of his name in the whaling business. Chase is hired to make sure this inexperience doesn’t get in the way.

While out in the middle of the sea, Pollard makes a bad decision to go to a dangerous spot and the crew end up attacked by a whale. The animal destroys the Essex, and the survivors end up stranded and having to do the worst to each other to survive.

Ron Howard, as a director, can be incredibly hit or miss.

“In the Heart of the Sea” is definitely a miss. The scripting was stilted and undeveloped.

Whether Howard or screenwriter Charles Leavitt is to blame is hard to say. What is easily talked about is how the dialogue of this film comes straight from an after school special and audience members are unable to connect with any character.

Some roles don’t even come off as archetypes. Pollard, as an example, is underused and the rich jerk shtick goes nowhere.

In the Heart of the Sea’s tone and storytelling ability fails the movie hard.

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The trailers for this film made it seem like a monster movie involving a whale. Instead, it serves as a tale of survival and what people will do to live. 

This isn’t a problem, except for how the actual telling of the story is treated. It feels more like a boring history professor lecturing about an event, than a heartfelt, emotionally gripping tale of desperation and survival.

The actual technical aspects of the film are fine, but the movie rarely does anything differently when it comes to camera angles, lighting or musical arrangement. When it does, it detracts from the film a bit. But overall, the normal presentation of these aspects comes off as beautiful.

Howard knows how to make a movie, even if sometimes it doesn’t turn out well. His technical direction helps make this film passable in some ways.

Stars: 2.5 out of 5.

Jacob Pierce can be reached at [email protected] or at 536-3326.