Movie Review

Captain Phillips has us at the edge of our seats

When I first heard that we were watching Captain Phillips I didn't know what to expect, Perhaps it was like The Pirates of the Caribbean or maybe the Little Mermaid? Nope, not close at all. Captain Phillips is the leader of the Maersk Alabama, a containership on its way across the Indian Ocean from the United States to Somalia and other countries in that area. Some of the crew includes Richard Phillips played by Tom Hanks, Shane Murphy played by Michael Chernus, and Mike Perry played by David Warshofsky. When the Somalian Pirates attack the ship, the leader Abduwali Muse (played by Barkhad Abdi) and his accomplices Bilal (played by Barkhad Abdirahman) and Najee (played by Faysal Ahmed) demand money or they will shoot them. These characters give us an inside into what the pirates are thinking and translations at the bottom of the screen show what they are saying in Somalian, showing us what they are saying to each other and their intentions.

When Captain Phillips and his crew first embark on their journey across the ocean, the Captain gets an email saying that there have been reports of pirate attacks in the Indian Ocean along the route that they are going along. He doesn't really think anything of it but warns his crew to be on the look out. When he sees speed boats quickly approaching them in the middle of the ocean, all crew members go into their safety hiding spots but the Captain and other important members of the crew are left in the open and unprotected control room of the ship. At first they speed up the ship in order to create a strong wake that would make the speed boats slow down and not be able to follow them. This works for a little while and the boats turn around, but that isn't the end of the pirates. Now only 4 of the pirates come back the next day and the rest of the movie is their dramatic experience on the ship.

Captain Phillips is played by Tom Hanks, who turned out to be an amazing actor for the role. He took the film to another level because he really brought the experience to life and made it even more realistic, and it was like you could see the fear in his eyes even though he was acting. Barkhad Abdirahman, Faysal Ahmed, Mahat M. Ali, and Barkhad Abdi all did a very good job of not only playing the intense role of the pirates but also being able to portray the relationships between each one of them flawlessly. The relationship between the four pirates is evident because they created an ensemble effort to pull the movie together. The movie was really intense and dramatic and the characters made the story really interesting and realistic.

This movie was very interesting the whole time, even though sometimes it seemed to drag on a little but it was never really boring. I would say that this movie might be a little too intense for children under 15 but over had a really developed story line. This movie is a good example of a high-concept film because I didn't know that much about the film prior to watching it and it still made sense because of the details in the story. I liked how the pirates would talk to each other in their native language, which was Somalian, and there were translations of what they were saying in English at the bottom of the screen even though when they did speak English it was sometimes hard to understand.

To me a main theme of this movie would be to always be prepared for the worst situations at hand because you never know what might happen. This message is shown throughout the film and is a main part of the whole concept of the movie. When the pirates first attacked the ship I don't think that the Captain was as prepared as he could have been because they were not really hidden from the pirates even though there were plenty of hiding spaces on the ship. This attack was a complete surprise to the whole crew even though they were warned prior to their departure.

This movie was rated PG-13 and I think that is a good rating because there was a lot of violence and some foul language throughout. The whole film was very intense so I wouldn't recommend it to people that don't enjoy thrillers, action or blood. I think an appropriate audience would be 15+ because even though its rated PG-13 it was a little too much at some parts. Overall I think t is a good movie that has a interesting storyline and contains a lot of drama and action. I personally would recommend it to people and think that it is a must see movie.
I give this movie 4 out of 5 stars.