Supervolcano

I have just finished watching this documentary/film and have also read another persons review on it, I thought the program was very interesting, I am a university student in my second year and having a program put a fact based disaster into a film is a very good way of showing people the effect this sort of disaster could have on the world.

It is very well explained, anyone could understand it, and even if they do use holographic projectors and things that haven't been invented yet, it does help people understand more easily. This documentary is aimed at anyone. It is based on scientific evidence so even if it hasn't happened yet, it is based on past happenings in the Yellowstone area and very sound predictions on volcanic activity based on years of research so therefore it isn't science fiction as the guy before said.

For anyone who is interested in the earth and things like volcanoes this is a very worthwhile documentary to watch.

I waited over a week to see this with not very high expectations - I was expecting a half- documentary, half-dramatized kind of thing. The Yellowstone SuperVolcano was something I had wanted to see a movie made about for years, this is finally it. Way better than that lame, horrible cliché-wracked turkey called "10.5" that NBC cranked out last year.

Although I had some gripes, I was overall impressed, specifically with the acting. This had cinema-quality performances that made it all the more believable. I was surprised by the magnitude of the visual effects, given that this was a TV movie. They were also of superb cinema quality.

The one thing I wanted to see which, alas, did not present itself, was the mass detonation of the entire Yellowstone region and the expulsion of a vast ocean of lava, as this is how I had pictured the Yellowstone super-eruption, and the actual geology of the area does show such immense layers of lava flows that come from a single eruption. This did not detract from my enjoyment of this film, though.

A surprisingly good production for television. 8/10.

Why can't something like this be in theaters? Supervolcano was better than most disaster movies out there. It certainly beat out Dante's Peak and Volcano due to its scientific accuracy and the fact that it can actually happen. The visual effects were outstandingly realistic. "10.5" and "The Core" looked like low-budget indie films compared to Supervolcano. Plus, it was filmed like a real movie and not in that annoying "24" style. The performances were very convincing and there was a connection felt to the characters. Bring on the movies, Discovery Channel! Documentaries are no longer the best thing you have going for you now, so don't stop!

The recent spate of educational, high budget, what if documentaries has culminated in what can basically be said as a Hollywood blockbuster with BBC values. Showing off special effect that although are impressive for a British TV program still look 5 years behind current technology. (Resident Evil anyone?) This said the interjection of fictional experts telling us directly what the science is behind the program and what we can expect is refreshing and is not patronising or smack in the face obvious as some of todays blockbusters. (Inderpendance Day, The Day After Tomorrow) The characters were at first were less stereotypical than the average but ultimately also less interesting although some great acting and casting all round. (I swear half the guest stars of Stargate SG1 appeared throughout the program) The main problem with Supervolcano and the thousands of what-could-happen-in-your-future docu-dramas is that the sheer amount of them conveys a sense that Armageddon can happen any second, especially with Smallpox 2001, The Day Britain Stood Still and any Horizon episode ever made. This leads the validity of the threat (in this case a bloody giant magma core underneath Yellowstone National Park) to be underplayed even if it is based on researched factual events.

We watched this in Geography class; the teacher is not one to fall for the spectacle of a disaster flick, and he told us that it has been confirmed by scientists that almost everything that happens in this could, indeed, occur. This is a docu-drama in two parts, each about 50 minutes and the second one starting with a summary of the first one. The plot is engaging, and this can be rather exciting and intense. There aren't really any characters that are anything less than obnoxious, though, and the acting is decent at best(the kid is downright poor, good thing he has so few lines). The FX are great. This does try a tad too hard at times(and one portion did sadly remind me of 2012, I kid you not), and the "effective quick zooms" add nothing. The music isn't bad. I would personally have preferred if the guy with the Scottish accent would talk slower, or have less crucial dialog, but that's because it was shown on a regular TV, and I was too far away to read the subtitles. The writing is solid, not all that many clichés and stereotypes made their way into the script of this. I recommend this to anyone interested in volcanoes or similar phenomena. 7/10