Die Vulkan-Apokalypse

Before the opening credits, rugged park ranger Richard Burgi (as Charlie Young) parachutes into a hellish countryside to rescue his pretty blonde daughter MyAnna Buring (as Claire) and her muscular young boyfriend Alex Wyndham (as Josh). The attempt appears to fail as lava covers the screen. After the credits, we meet our fourth principal player, Disaster Management Agency (DMA) volcanologist Juliet Aubrey (as Kate Brooks). She is helpless as volcanic activity covers North America and the rest of the world. Earth is about to explode when we flashback, "Two Days Earlier." Yellowstone National Park is peaceful until Mr. Wyndham finds a sexually-inclined couple scorched by a sudden blast of hot water. This is interesting as Rafael Jordan's story then proceeds like a horror movie, with the volcano as its monster. However, a disconnected science-fiction time-travel angle and cheesy special effects make it look too silly.

**** Super Eruption (3/8/11) Matt Godd ~ Richard Burgi, Juliet Aubrey, MyAnna Buring, Alex Wyndham

This one's nearly as entertaining as AIRPLANE VS VOLCANO! SUPER ERUPTION is a good natured SyFy Channel-made disaster movie about a volcano erupting at Yellowstone National Park, although it was actually filmed in Bulgaria with a mainly British cast. Whichever way you look at it, it's a film with an involved storyline, lots of entertaining actors, and plenty of incident to propel the narrative along.

Lame CGI effects are the bane of this sub-genre but to be fair they're not too shabby here and could have been - and often are - a lot worse. The narrative is actually well written for the most part and I loved the extra sci-fi twist thrown in along the way. The last third is a little weak but the early scenes generated enough fun for me not to mind too much.

Actors involved in the shenanigans include likable ex-DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES star Richard Burgi, making a fine double act with British TV actress Juliet Aubrey. The ubiquitous MyAnna Buring (THE DESCENT) puts on a relatively convincing American accent throughout, while Alex Wyndham (ROME) bags the minor role of a park ranger. SUPER ERUPTION is no classic, that's for sure, but when you've seen enough of these low rent disaster flicks you'll learn to appreciate even a middling production like this one.

I feel this deserves more stars because its not easy to make a disaster movie this bad, but I have trouble giving it 3 stars (at least 1 star over). This is a rip off of Dante's Peak, even using similar music, mixed with a bit of Volcano and, surprisingly, Interstellar. It might be the best bad disaster movie I've ever seen, but it starred Juliet Aubrey, and she made it worth watching.

I was looking forward to watching a new and exciting disaster movie this evening. This movie was a total waste of my two hours. Although the basic story is good - Yellowstone erupting, which scientists say is inevitable, the storyline is totally ludicrous. The scenes where the main character sees and talks to herself through her computer, from apparently another dimension, makes no sense whatsoever and doesn't add a thing to the story. The special effects as well are just pitiful.

If there's nothing else to watch on TV and you don't care about wasting two hours, then go for it; otherwise, you'll be better off spending that time reading a good book. I wish that's what I had done! In my opinion, this is one of many badly scripted made-for-TV science fiction movies that has come out of Hollywood in the past two decades. Seems they don't know how to make them anymore!

Yet another volcano disaster film and made by the Syfy channel?! Never really stood a chance did it?

Thing is this is slightly tweaked. What do you get when you cross a volcano movie with Frequency (2000)? You get Super Eruption which isn't as bad as you'd think.

It tells the story of an eruption occurring underneath Yellowstone park and the usual attempts at stopping it through pseudo science.

Super Eruption however has a scifi twist to it which both makes it more interesting and considerably less credible. The concept makes you think but it's 100% guaranteed to cause a migraine or two.

The decent cast keep the movie from falling into mediocrity, and though it is just another scyfy original it's certainly watchable.

The Good:

Cast do a good job

Some interesting ideas

The Bad:

Poor sfx

Usual levels of baffling stupidity

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Would Yellowstone erupting actual cause the end of the world? Let's not find out