This terrific disaster movie shows Hollywood how to do it. No stupid characters, no banal dialogue, no bad guys and no heroics. Just an ordinary family, emotionally real, fighting for their lives in an apocalyptic nightmare of a situation. A mountain is about to fall into a fjord… and it’s tourist season. The effects may not be perfect but they’re exciting enough. Following his brace of serial-killer-in-the-snow Cold Prey films, director Roar Uthaug ratchets up the tension to breaking point and delivers a gripping vision of hell.
The whole point of disaster movies, especially those which give away the entire plot line in the title, is that they are meant to be formulaic and OTT bad. Trying to make a serious one (as this one is) is about as daft as making a politically correct pantomime - it just doesn't work. If you call something 'The Wave' what the hell was the audience expecting - a surf movie? Had they entitled it 'The Fjord' I might have stayed with it longer than I did assuming it to be a travelogue.
Despite all attempts to introduce twists and turns to the plot it was dull.
Wow. Special effects better than I expected and the people were real - no unfeasibly perfect heroes here! The scene in the coach is still giving me chills.