Home Cinema This 21-year-old Wes Anderson adventure film was a catastrophic bomb at the box office (but it has 1 perfect performance)

This 21-year-old Wes Anderson adventure film was a catastrophic bomb at the box office (but it has 1 perfect performance)

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This 21-year-old Wes Anderson adventure film was a catastrophic bomb at the box office (but it has 1 perfect performance)


2025 was a little to start with the cinema, but there are still many classics guaranteed to be hoped for. Blockbuster fans die of wanting to see Avatar: Fire and ASH and Supermanwhile lovers of awards wait patiently Chloé Zhao Materialists And Paul Thomas Anderson One battle after another. Although these two sides of the spectrum cannot be more different, there is a special filmmaker who can unite the world with his extremely pleasant production.

The filmography tinged with gold from Wes Anderson is bordered by a dozen perfectly symmetrical, subtly hilarious and incredibly twee masterpieces, and another should arrive in theaters this month. Anderson has proven that he has a universal appeal beyond criticism and lovers of pure and hard films, but even with this rabid cult according to several demographic data, there is a specific black sheep in the herd. Aquatic life with Steve Zissou is a starry entrance, emotionally resonant, but slightly too overflowed in the catalog of the director acclaimed by criticism. Despite some minor faults, the film is extremely underestimated, and a large part of its quality merit goes to a central power performance, and it is not the one that fans would expect.

What is aquatic life with Steve Zissou?

Bill Murray Life Aquatic
Image via touchstone images

Aquatic life with Steve Zissou Is, not surprisingly, an original and very stylized adventure comedy film at sea. The history of the film mainly follows the filmmaker of the documentary of world nature, Steve Zissou (Bill Murray), while he takes place on a trip to avenge his partner, who was killed by the threatening and potentially not real Jaguar Shark.

Steve’s team is incredibly faithful, but terribly sub-financed. In other words, until he meets Ned Plpton (Owen Wilson), a strangely southern pilot of the airline that theorizes that he could be Steve’s lost son. Ned agrees to finance the trip of the Zissou team and ends up going to the journey to forge a relationship with the man who could be his father. Before taking off in the expedition, however, the Zissou team faces a second trail, Jane Winslet-Richardson (Cate Blanchett). Jane is a pregnant journalist who seeks to tell the adventure of the team and who also serves as a catalyst for a strange triangle love father-son.

Once the team is brought together, the Zissou team ventures into dangerous and surrealist waters, where they face a litany of threats, pirates and rival explorers with relational disputes and threatening the Stooges bond company. The following journey is more than a simple caper of action of the crime. The film mixes this action in hare with truly poignant themes of mourning and self-reflection. Zissou confronts his mortality and her inheritance, fighting to see if he has “always understood”. Jane confronts her love life and the viability of entering a new relationship despite the fact that her husband’s body is always fresh. Ned confronts his identity while desperately trying to determine if his origins count. These three characters, and the rest of the Zissou team, meet in the film’s final, where they are faced with the inexplicable nature of sorrow as a discovery family.

Aquatic life with Steve Zissou is the follow -up of Wes Anderson The Royal Tenenbaums. The expectations were as high as what could be followed by the overall comedy led by Gene Hackman, and Aquatic life I couldn’t really be up to the media threshing. To date, Anderson’s effort in 2004 is still his only film with a negative rotating partition of tomatoes, and a large part of the merit must go to the expectations of the Titanic which have been placed on his shoulders.

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In May 2025, Aquatic life with Steve Zissou To a score of 57% shocking criticism on Rotten Tomatoes against a very respectable note of 82% of fans, which can be credited with the enraged worship which has formed around this specific entry in its catalog. This critical hatred was reflected in the disappointing yields of the film’s box office, because the film only achieved $ 34.8 million against a budget of $ 50 million. The general critical consensus was that the Flair of Wes Anderson for irony and the fantasy took a turn for the worst here and exceeded its reception with a long and tonely inconsistent execution time.

Although these criticisms are not necessarily false, as Aquatic life with Steve Zissou was undoubtedly the most experimental and indulgent vision of Anderson on his eccentric style at the time, it is difficult to apply this retrospective criticism. Since the release of this film, Anderson has completely relied on these theatrical sensitivities. His most recent films, Asteroid city And The French dispatch, Do not even try realism in any way and rather operate on layers of irony. If Anderson’s film in 2004 had been released today, it would most likely be welcomed with open arms, because modern criticism know what to expect from the now Oscar -winning filmmaker.

The best performance in aquatic life is not Bill Murray

Aquatic life Owen Wilson Cate Blanchett
Image via touchstone images

Bill Murray appeared in each Wes Anderson film, except Asteroid city And Bottle rocketAnd therefore, part of his best career work lies in the catalog of the acclaimed director. Its most emblematic performance of the group is probably its support role in Rushmore, Who launched his career as an independent cinema actor. Many fans say that the second best performance in Murray’s career was the title of Steve Zissou in Aquatic life, And these fans have a solid argument. Murray’s conflict performance serves as the emotional knot of the film, but even with this showcase of power, it still ranks third among the main actors in the film.

Owen Wilson co-written Anderson’s first three films, Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, And The Royal Tenenbaums.

Wes Anderson’s computer, Owen Wilson, steals the show in his limited screen time in this film. Its strange performance, which presents a off -putting and obviously false southern accent, is completely unique and incomparable. The representation of Wilson de Ned Plpton (which was finally known as Kingsley Zissou) is as soft as possible. A large part of the emotion behind Wilson’s performance is tacit, because NED’s internal struggle for an appropriate identity takes place in contemplative thought or in silent conversations with Jane de Cate Blanchett.

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The second best performance in the film is Cate Blanchett. Although he is not an eminent or recurring member of the company of actors of Wes Anderson, Cate Blanchett apparently understood the unique and indirect written voice of Anderson du Saut. Jane, as a character, is placed in an almost impossible situation for an actor. Due to the persistent love triangle between Ned, Steve and Elle, Blanchett is forced to have chemistry with the two men, while making a quiet sadness about her because of her widow’s status. The result of this is a slightly absurd performance, where it is forced to remain soft and impassive even in its most angry moments.

The Phoenician program will be perfect for fans of aquatic life

While Aquatic life with Steve Zissou could be a minor aberrant value in the catalog of director of Wes Anderson, he could soon obtain a crime partner. Aquatic life with Steve Zissou is above all adventurous and hilarious, but he also plunges into the field of action and crime more than any other film Anderson. The Phoenician ProgramAlthough he has not yet struck cinemas, seems to do more the same thing, and rabid fans of Anderson’s most critical work began their hopes and their prayers early.

Casting The Phoenician Program Includes three Oscar winners and five nominees at the Oscars.

Since TThe Phoenician Program Was announced, fans slowly and regularly assembled the scattered and biased intrigue of the film from promotional images, distribution ads and random details known to the public. The quest for information has proven to be mainly futile, because the incredibly simple line line of the film, “the story of a family and a family business” does not light up much. The slogan of the film, “if something puts you on your way: flattening it”, although as simple, began the rumor among the fans that Anderson could make another attempt at action and crime. Now that the film’s trailer has been published, it seems that these theorization fans were correct.

In April, the trailer for the twelfth feature film by Wes Anderson struck the internet, and this confirmed most of the suspicions that swirled on the internet. From the first moments of the trailer, the high issues of this film can be seen, because Benicio Del Toro, soaked in blood, filled the frame. The film seems to combine the theatrical nature of films like Asteroid city With the action of Aquatic life with Steve Zissou and the masterpiece in stop-motion, Fantastic M. Fox. Thanks to this perfect formula, the excitement surrounding the film continues to increase at an exponential pace.

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Although Wes Anderson’s film in 2004 may not have been the strike that many expected, it undoubtedly deserves a revisit with a modern objective. The three incredible lead performances, in conjunction with the modern context of the highly stylized work of Wes Anderson, will probably lead to a critical re -evaluation. While fans and criticism are preparing to The Phoenician program, They would be negligent if they did not give Aquatic life with Steve Zissou A second chance.

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