Chasing Mavericks

Chasing Mavericks is the film in which I had a lot of hope for prior to viewing it.  The reason for this was due to the fact that Chasing Mavericks, originally titled, Of Men and Mavericks, was shot in my home town's back yard!  That's right reader, it's no surprise that I am from The World Renown San Francisco Bay Area, in fact, I even have family who live in Santa Cruz.  Back in the day, I surfed a little down in Half Moon Bay; so the location and setting was something I was expecting to be fun and reminiscent.  As I said before I had a lot of hope this film would be good.

This film is based on a true story of Jay Moriarity (Johnny Weston), who was a local surfer from Santa Cruz California.  From an early age Jay was more interested with surfing than in reality, and this was overly evident in his daily routine.  He would wake up early to go surfing or train in order to be a better surfer, go to school, faint in class (from holding his breath too long, again in order to be a stronger surfer), and went to work at a local pizza spot to make some cash to help out his mother. The viewer can see his true calling and identity belonged to the ocean, not to the daily grind.

Jay idolizes this local surf legend and neighbor named Frosty (Gerard Butler), and the two form a strange bond.  Their "friendship" starts out when Frosty realizes that Jay is secretly following him around, including to his super secret surf location in Half Moon Bay known as Mavericks.  The reason Frosty even spends time with Jay is due to the fact that he is training/conditioning Jay to become a strong enough surfer in order for Jay to surf the omega huge swells which frequent the Half Moon Bay area.  (How huge of swells?  Look below!)  These two guys have things in common deeper then the ocean; Jay's father abandoned him when he was little and both of Frosty's parents died when he was a child.  It is nice to see Jay and Frosty bond through their common abandonment issues and love of surfing, very "reality television" of them.  As one would expect from two people sharing common family issues as well as other common interests, Jay and Frosty become closer and closer eventually leading to a father-son relationship, which was touching and very predictable.

 

How huge you ask?  Well let's just say these waves typically reach around 25 feet, with the potential of maxing out at over 80 feet.(This is the actual image from the real-life Jay riding Mavericks; Jay was 6'2" so you can imagine how big that wave was.  Sadly, he died 7 years after that picture was taken, hence the "was".)...So as I was saying, omega huge swells.  Look Back up!

Now down to the nitty gritty.

Films are made up of various elements: acting, screenplay, directing, etc.  Where this film excelled was a much narrower list of elements- one to be exact: appearance.  What I mean by this is not only its cinematography, but also, and more importantly, its locations or settings.  Any surf film worth its sea salt should have most of its scenes in the water, and Chasing Mavericks did not disappoint.  Chasing Mavericks had shots both above and under the water; Small waves and BIG waves; it had surfing shots and diving shots, even some Sea life: seal and great white shark; it had wipe-outs and spectacular rides; it also had an extremely tense, nerve racking viewing experience.

(This is a production picture, notice the camera operator on the red jet-ski; very impressive locations)

How could you not want to look away at these mega waves?  All of the scenes involving the Mavericks swells were difficult to watch at many points, especially if you have a fear of the ocean.  The shear magnitude of how minuscule a human is to a 50 foot wall of water is very humbling.  Each time these dare-devil surfers paddled up the face of these immense walls of water I found myself holding my breathe; literally having miniature panic attacks during those instances.  I'm sure a lot of us know what it's like to hammered by a wave, and some of us know what it's like to submerged for longer than we feel comfortable (we've all gone into the deep end of a pool without the gills needed to survive long periods of submersion).  One can only imagine how terrifying it must be to not know if you are going to be swallowed up by the unforgiving sea, or granted a pass over it just before it crashed down in the space once occupied by us mortals.

Where this film lacked was unfortunate, because it was basically everything else.  The script was very sub-par, and the acting wasn't all that much better.  I felt that the majority of the lines seemed forced and overly cliche.  A lot of the dialogue seemed as though it was taken directly from other cheesy films.  There were a few scenes that seemed emotionally genuine, but as a whole it seemed like it was shot at the first script read.  One thing that stood out and actually made me LOL (laugh out loud for those who aren't obsessed with online/text lingo) was when Frosty and Jay embraced after Jay caught his wave at Mavericks, and Frosty told Jay that he loved him.  I'm sorry, some people would find that endearing, and usually I would too, however, based off the previously flat emotional enthusiasm, this seemed almost comical.

I wouldn't really recommend this film, unless you love surfing or the ocean.  This is at the most an easy going film to have on in the background while you go about your daily life i.e. read Popcorn or Snore, DO IT!!!!!



Final Words: zzz.
This film looked amazing from start to finish,  all water scenes where visually spectacular, however, the film lacked far too much for its prettiness to make up.  Skip this terrifying thrill ride, you won't miss any zzz's if you do.

Until next time, happy viewing!

Review Rating : Based on popcorn sizes; small, medium, large, extra-large
                           When films get a snore zzz... worth skipping