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Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Good movie but grossly overrated

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Saw this recently on a DVD. Been on my radar for a long time. Knowin that its from the director of the original Insomnia n the actor from Headhunters, it aroused my curiosity. The film is about Norwegians and Americans cooperating in diving deeper than anyone previously has done to prepare for the installation of a gas pipeline. I found the movie very informative, providing knowledge about decompression sickness. Professional divers r used as guinea pigs while scientists secretly tested gas mixtures thought to counteract harmful deep sea pressures without the participant's knowledge. The film features breathless n claustrophobic underwater sequences. The bottom of the ocean as the dark side of the moon with the Norwegian flag. The scenes where the divers r going through rigorous training to prepare themselves are very tense. The claustrophobic environment of the pressure chamber n the divers' hallucinations created a sense of dread. The cinematography is gorgeous with clean blues, greens, and amber colors. The pacing was a bit letdown. Once the movie is away from the sea, it becomes a bit slow. The other issue was that the American characters, (Lang n Bentley) weren't given more footage n dialogues. The relationship between the lead character n his brother's family were a bit melodramatic at times. The angle of the greedy corporations n politics were full of clichés.

This thriller is set in the early eighties; oil has been discovered in Norwegian waters but getting it ashore won't be easy as construction of the pipeline will require divers to work at unprecedented depths. As they prepare for test dives Norwegian divers are working alongside Americans, whose company has developed a secret gas mix that makes diving at such depths possible. This is vividly demonstrated in an early scene where Norwegian divers using regular air in a test chamber start hallucinating while an American in a separate chamber is fine.When the first dive starts something goes very wrong for brothers Petter and Knut Jensen. An accident leaves Knut dead and Petter wants answers. He is told that he made a briefly blacked out so made a mistake but he doesn't accept this explanation; especially when told that there is no recording of the video feed. He starts his own investigation that initially centres on the man in the diving bell who was supervising the air feed but later switching to trying to discover just what the 'secret ingredient' in the American gas mix is… something the company has no intention of telling him as the Norwegian government would have no reason to grant them a contract if they knew the secret so could do the work without outside help.I really enjoyed this taut thriller; the scenes underwater were very tense… even before things go wrong the situation is compared to walking on the moon. Once the accident happens the investigation is interesting; it makes a change to have an ordinary person carrying out an investigation rather than a police officer or private investigator. Petter's investigations raise several suspects and it looks as if somebody is willing to kill to stop him finding out after a contact 'accidentally overdoses'. There is also the possibility that those trying to stop him are working to protect a valuable business secret rather than cover up the cause of the accident. During the film there are plenty of tense moments as Petter gets into various potentially dangerous situations. The cast does a solid job; most notably Aksel Hennie who is rarely off screen in the role of Petter. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to those wanting a tense thriller that isn't reliant on non-stop action.

Saw this advertised on Sky Movies. The movie poster had an Abyss feel to it, which I guess did the job of getting my interest.The info then described this as a gripping 80's thriller. Believe me, unless your idea of gripping is people sitting around in decompression chambers, jittery flashbacks announced with annoying sound effects and far too much coverage given to the lead guy's fur lined jacket, this couldn't be further from the truth.I watched this for about 50 minutes before the boredom became more crushing than the pressure at the bottom of the Marianas trench.The Wave wasn't bad but after this and the appalling The Last King, I think I'm gonna have to give these Norwegians films a bit of a miss.

I caught Pioneer, an oil rush thriller set in the early eighties, at the London Film Festival. It was featured as part of 'Thrill' and promised to keep me "on the edge of my seat". The backers, Friland Produksjon, are also responsible for the critically acclaimed Headhunters adapted from Jo Nesbø's novel of the same name and Erik Skjoldbjærg directed the original Insomnia in 1997. What's more, one of Scandinavia's foremost actors and the star of Headhunters, Aksel Hennie, plays Petter, a professional deep-sea diver on a dangerous quest 500 meters down the North Sea. Air composed the soundtrack, Wes Bentley plays a shady character, Norway has glorious scenery and someone dies. 106 minutes would fly by.Pioneer is that rare hybrid: an old school contemporary Norwegian film. The action takes place more than 30 years ago and the cinematography revisits the look and feel of classic late seventies thrillers to depict tensions between oil companies and state government. Here however, an over-reliance on grainy footage, amber and blue filters dims what could have been a series of eerie underwater voyages, as well as unfortunately, any real suspense. Instead it gives the audience a sensation akin to the claustrophobia of Das Boot without the sense of dread that pervaded it. Pioneer's omnipresent soundtrack creates an even greater disconnect where Das Boot had us trapped with a sombre Jürgen Prochnow inside a silent submarine during World War II.The premise is excellent. It centers on the discovery of large resources of oil and gas at the bottom of the frozen North Sea. We are at the very beginning of the Norwegian Oil Boom which resulted in Norway's prosperity and high standard of living. Petter and Knut (André Eriksen) are brothers and colleagues involved in government-funded petroleum explorations and highly dangerous diving tests conducted in the great depths of the North Sea to establish whether pipelines can be installed. Just as we get to know the main characters, tragedy strikes. A compelling actor in whose performance there was barely enough time to get invested is gone too soon.Pioneer is a well-intended production which had to make difficult stylistic choices to stretch a Scandinavian budget over expensive action scenes. It tries to be too many things at once and falls short of carrying significance beyond what is seen. Wes Bentley, so good in American Beauty, is confined to a redundant secondary role devoid of genuine purpose. He walks around looking sinister and utters a few English words here and there. Ironically, the dialog lacks depth. Clichés, particularly in the depiction of gender relations, often stand for character development. Obvious symbolism such as bodies of water representing femininity and a full moon to signal rebirth do not challenge the audience much.Erik Skjoldbjærg said he was "heavily influenced by The Conversation, Chinatown and All The President's Men" in his desire to revive the seventies conspiracy thriller. I wish he had also named the older 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick and exploited more of the dramatic Norwegian coast to better contrast deep sea-diving drama with conflicting human interests above ground.My verdict? Watch Insomnia on DVD and wait for Gravity.