You raise a good point about the film's saving grace, mate. Unlike The Perfect Storm, where the storm itself was central to the story, in this one the storm and ship break-up served as a platform to the characters' arcs as they progressed. I still don't think it was convincing in any way, but you can't fault them for putting character over visual effects and spectacle.

Thanks mate. Like you, I thought the "romance" element of the film just didn't work well at all. It felt clumsy, ill-concieved and frankly unbelievable. Had they jettisoned this and given the film a purely "action" aesthetic instead, focused on Pine more in his hero role, the film would have worked better. And poor Casey Affleck – the dude really is a better actor than this material allowed, but I struggle to see how he could have done a better job under the circumstances.

Nice review, my friend!