Kon Tiki is a very inspiring story made into a long slog of a film that is more of an endurance test than a night out at the cinema. While watching it---I was reminded of My Dinner With Andre because both films feature people talking throughout and have no exciting conflict. However, that was at least the point of My Dinner With Andre and it worked wonders. Kon Tiki, on the other hand, just fails. It's a really bad film made a bit better by the fact that you can't watch it and not think of just how inspiring this story was in real life.
The film stars Pal Hagen as Thor...who sets out with a group of anthropologists to prove that South Americans settled on Polynesian Islands before Columbus ever touched the ocean. In the real life story...they face conflicts and danger such as sharks, massive waves and each other. I suppose that's all in the film as well. It's just that in the film they talk about the danger more than it is actually shown. This is a fatal flaw for what is supposed to be a rousing epic.
The other huge fatal flaw is the acting. It's not that the acting is terrible. In fact, it's that the actors try too hard to impress the audience. They overstate every line and react too heavily to the situation at hand. As well, the actors try to make the talking exciting but can't do that because there's no way to make the dialogue at hand the least bit exciting. All of this makes for an inspiring story but dull execution.
Kon Tiki has been compared to Life Of Pi by the masses. I think this is a very fair comparison. Beside the fact that Kon Tiki is not visually stunning and in 3D like Life Of Pi was...they are basically the same film. They're both inspiring stories made into mediocre films and they both feature way too much talking about the story rather than actually showing it. The other difference is that I can't possibly see Kon Tiki winning any Oscars in the universe that we live in.
(2 out of 5 Stars, The film is rated PG-13 for a disturbing violent sequence)
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