Cussler's novels have so many great action set pieces, that to whittle any of them down to a feature film immediately guts them of much of their fun. They would be better served in either a mini-series format or as a series a la "Alias" or "24," where there are strong story arcs and lots of cliffhangers.
It's unfortunate that the producers attempted to launch a film series with what is the most flawed of the Dirk Pitt novels. In fact, to their credit, some changes from the book actually do a better job of tying the historical backdrop to the contemporary story, and another edit makes somewhat more palatable the deus ex machina that saves Dirk and Al in the desert (the excised footage is included in the DVD's deleted scenes).
The casting isn't bad, although Al Giordino is described in the Cussler novels as being more like Monk from the Doc Savage pulps than any run-of-the-mill actor. Casting would inevitably be a challenge (though I've long envisioned Joe Piscopo as the closest "name" actor to the character), but Steve Zahn certainly doesn't match the literary version of Al. Still, I understand that Cussler signed off on him, and he always adds a fun presence to the pictures he appears in. As for Rudi Gunn, I've always imagined him to be smaller, maybe a bit like Barry Livingston (Ernie on "My Three Sons") or even actor Matt Craven. William H. Macy doesn't make a bad Sandecker, though he certainly gives the character more of a comical bent than he has in the novels.
All in all, the picture works on a very basic action-adventure level, but because of the scaling down required for the feature-length format, what we're left with is simply a decent action picture that's nothing special. Nevertheless, it certainly outperforms the one prior attempt to bring Dirk Pitt to the screen, "Raise the Titanic"; which, for all its failings, gave us a wonderful score by composer John Barry.
It's unfortunate that the producers attempted to launch a film series with what is the most flawed of the Dirk Pitt novels. In fact, to their credit, some changes from the book actually do a better job of tying the historical backdrop to the contemporary story, and another edit makes somewhat more palatable the deus ex machina that saves Dirk and Al in the desert (the excised footage is included in the DVD's deleted scenes).
The casting isn't bad, although Al Giordino is described in the Cussler novels as being more like Monk from the Doc Savage pulps than any run-of-the-mill actor. Casting would inevitably be a challenge (though I've long envisioned Joe Piscopo as the closest "name" actor to the character), but Steve Zahn certainly doesn't match the literary version of Al. Still, I understand that Cussler signed off on him, and he always adds a fun presence to the pictures he appears in. As for Rudi Gunn, I've always imagined him to be smaller, maybe a bit like Barry Livingston (Ernie on "My Three Sons") or even actor Matt Craven. William H. Macy doesn't make a bad Sandecker, though he certainly gives the character more of a comical bent than he has in the novels.
All in all, the picture works on a very basic action-adventure level, but because of the scaling down required for the feature-length format, what we're left with is simply a decent action picture that's nothing special. Nevertheless, it certainly outperforms the one prior attempt to bring Dirk Pitt to the screen, "Raise the Titanic"; which, for all its failings, gave us a wonderful score by composer John Barry.