50
Slant Magazine by Clayton Dillard
The film drops any interest in the blurring of fact and fiction as it settles into a rote account of a contemporary oil rig catastrophe.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
50
The New York Times by Jeannette Catsoulis
We get little more than a bland romance, smoothly professional special effects and a story that’s finally too predictable to raise the heart rate.
40
Los Angeles Times by Noel Murray
The film as a whole, though, never hits as hard as it should. The characters are too stock — generic enough that their personalities won’t distract from the looming apocalyptic trouble.
40
The movie has every right to be fiction, but the heart of its drama lies in its patina of plausibility.
65
By taking its time setting the stakes for all involved, when the action strikes, its impact is witnessed more through the cast rather than a cadre of CGI explosions.
58
For a movie so intuitively captivating, so visually extravagant, it very nearly papers over all its emotional weaknesses.
63
Any time you can top your tale of crisis, calamity and heroism with sacrifice, pathos and a hopeful message, you call that a “win,” in Hollywood or Aelsund.
63
RogerEbert.com by Simon Abrams
The Burning Sea may ultimately be too uptight for its own good, but there’s enough here to satisfy disaster aficionados who’ve already been here before and only really want to root for more of the same.