The Wave

Set in a real tourist village in Norway that actually is under constant threat from potential mountain erosion into the surrounding fjord, The Wave can be seen as an attempt to ground the disaster movie with a vague element of realism. The 300-foot tsunami threat that comes halfway through is, according to bookend exposition, a legitimate possibility, while its core characters are largely restricted to a geologist who monitors the mountain and his immediate family members.

As a result, you don’t get the sort of outlandish motley crew of, say, a Roland Emmerich film. To be honest, that force of personality is sorely missed. While the central destruction set-piece here is thrilling and the special effects impressive, the more subdued (for this genre) band of characters don’t make for all that engaging figures pre- or post-tsunami. The ‘grounded’ approach actually makes some of the film's manipulative plotting infuriating, especially when members of the ostensibly heroic nuclear family at the centre actively get other people killed.