322. Captain Phillips (2013)

Starring: Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi, Catherine Keener

Director: Paul Greengrass

Running Time: 134 mins

Captain Phillips is an American film based on the true story of a cargo ship that was abducted by Somali pirates in 2009, and the ship’s captain must fight and come up with the best way of keeping himself, and his whole crew alive.

This was a very exciting and fascinating film. I thought that the way in which this was presented in such a biographic way meant that it was so much fascinating to follow the story of this man and the ordeal he went through, with the backstory of his family and his character being very prominent in helping to understand Captain Phillips.

I have to say that the first hour of this film was very good. Exciting, action-packed, clever, and nicely tied in with a brilliant story, it was a great joy to watch, however I must say that it was not as tense as it could have been, as the pirates’ arrival just seemed so un-dramatic.

Towards the middle of this film, when the story becomes wider and more complex, I found that it also became a little boring, as there was roughly half an hour where very little happened at all, and I found that very difficult to watch with interest.

However, the finale was brilliant. It brought the tension that I had been expecting for the whole film, it raised the game, making it even more exciting to watch, and the story just became further and further enthralling.

Overall, I’ll give this a 7.5, because although it was interesting and often very exciting, I found that some parts were just a little too boring.