masonfisk
The Wave represents probably one of our biggest fears of the environment, a catastrophe which we, namely people of the West, didn't even know exists. Told in a dry, sober tone w/nary a recognizable superstar or humorous quip (take that future Hollywood remake!) we are thrust in a bucolic mountainous locale where an intrepid band of scientists monitor the landscape for fear of a landslide which will cause a tsunami wave killing most or all if they're not evacuated in the 10 minute allotted escape time. Putting the storytelling squarely on the intimate, the lead hero's quest to get his family to safety normalizes the spectacle rather than being swallowed by it.
Per Johnsen
Already when I saw the trailer to The Wave I thought - Oh no, they have managed to go backwards to the Norwegian stone ages of film, when it comes to language, that is. There shouldn't be anything the matter with the actors, but except from that the main roles for this film, the most actors are delivering constructed lines. To a non Norwegian audience, it's probably harder to tell, but it occasionally sounds like the actors are reading from an underdeveloped script. This of course has much to do with the writing, but it's also characteristic for and being one of many examples that it is more important for many high scale makers of film and television drama in Norway to cast famous names, actors who normally are expected to do a quality job, than to look for the actual right ones, someone who could put higher level to it. The Wave was supposed to be a real blockbuster, and the makers believe the film won't sell otherwise. Most characters in this film are occupied by actors from a small environment, handpicked for mentioned reasons. Even some minor parts, two Danish hotel guests, are occupied by much used and well known actors who not necessarily are the best available. And the male Danish also character functions as a mandatory bad guy. One exception in the cast is the teenage son of the family, played by Jonas Hoff Oftebro, who also seems to be the only one managing to find his own way of speaking and acting, somehow apart from what's been written in the script, and he and his young sister appears to be quite relaxed and normal, not over acting like most of the adults. Still, most disappointing in this matter is the main actor, Kristoffer Joner, who together with Aksel Hennie, seemingly have been doing the lead in every second Norwegian movie the last years. It's like Matt Damon and Samuel L. Jackson were in all the movies, and even they are not. When Joner can't seem to find the right balance in his acting and make his character believable through much of the film, in particular the first half, it's a double shame, even though it's getting better through out the film. Maybe he had get warmed up, and perhaps the result is much the director's fault, but it'd be better if the role had been given to someone else. Another not quite so over used actress, Ane Dahl Torp, mostly does a better job as the wife. But there clearly are aspects to the film that are functioning very well. The scenographers have done a good job and the computer animated wave is very close to realistic. The animation team has got good credits for that. Sadly that does not take away the poor qualities in the dialogue, direction and acting. Widely thinking the plot is based on a phenomenon most serious, and the mountain part falling in to the Geiranger Fjord in the film, is going to do so sooner or later. Seeing the result this disaster movie as an in many ways mistaken and cliché project, has nothing to do with disrespecting the consequences that people actually will face. If only the creators could have chosen a more original language and avoided trying to make a Hollywood copy. It's obvious that this according to Norwegian standards has been quite an expensive film, and even if it it possibly is good advertising for tourism, as if the Norwegian fjords aren't world famous enough, The Wave is merely a Norwegian style Hollywood copy of a disaster film wanting hard to be a block buster. Compared to national standards it clearly got a very big audience, but it also ran of with a large pot from The Norwegian Film Institute and other Nordic support schemes, to cover the budget, money that may have been invested in many other projects, a better way to develop national film making. But at the end of the day, it's all about selling Norway, the nature and feed the national feeling of pride. In this fashion The Wave has put another stone to an already existing mountain. The story is actually fully original, not coming from a novel, but based on a kind of realistic scenario. Too bad then, that it ended up as a predictable cliché. And folks, you better do some research on first aid in drowning situations. The one responsible for research on this in The Wave obviously hasn't, perhaps neither too much when it comes to what it is to be a professional in geology.
RoyalMela
This movie is classy, and stays true to human elements. Most disaster movies, mostly San Andreas, is so predictable and over the top but this one has true realism to it. There is no super CGI, but instead uses all CGI visely and makes every second of it look great. It has the same suspense in a way Jaws has. You are afraid of things you can not see. Same goes here. Characters are mostly believable. You kind of expect what is gonna happen to whom but there are lots and lots of twists and turns you could not expect to happen, and that is one thing that keeps this movie so fresh compared to Hollywood-films.
