Sphère

It is 2017 and I'm still discovering movies from the 90's that are worth a peek.

The government has discovered a space craft buried beneath some coral in the Pacific Ocean. The government concludes that this must be an opportunity at alien contact so they grab a team of scientists to make the first contact. Within the crashed vessel they find a shimmering sphere. A few of the scientist decide to enter it and then things get weird.

I liked the cast: Sharon Stone, Samuel L. Jackson, Dustin Hoffman, Liev Schrieber, Queen Latifah et al. The setting was very claustrophobic as they spent the majority of the movie 1000 feet beneath the surface surrounded by water. Once people started being killed by odd creatures it was race to figure out what or who was causing this before they all perished.

This movie was really about man's inability to handle alien gifts/technology. That's a lesson we've learned many times over. The movie got a bit confusing towards the end as they tried to solve the mystery of who/what was the cause of the death and destruction. I felt there were a lot of holes in the movie and it left me a bit unfulfilled.

When I saw the preview for Sphere over and over again, I should've known that something bad was up. The preview had no tension in it at all! At the end, I wanted to shout "Gimmmie an S!" and so on. Undaunted by my doubting self I went to see the movie anyway. I think I should've stayed home and reread the book. The film lacked any tension that being several thousand feet below the Pacific should provide. The title cards placed in the film threw it off balance. It reminded me of "Frasier," but on that show, they work! Dustin Hoffman and Samuel L. Jackson were game enough to go along with this soggy mess, and Sharon Stone hasn't made a decent movie since Casino. The usually talented Barry Levinson was out of his element here. The film should've been handled by someone who knew the intricacies of working in a wet for wet environment. Maybe someone like, James Cameron? He would've been a fine choice, but he was too busy making a ship sink. If you want a good underwater adventure from Michael Crichton, read the book.

Fantastic performances from some true talent. Wonderful direction from a great artist. Some well executed sequences of horror and suspense. An interesting first-act. Wonderful music and design. And a fairly good piece of source material in the form of a Michael Crichton novel.

I just don't get how "Sphere" wasn't a wonderful film!

You can feel so much potential in that opening half-hour. And there are so many good elements at play. But it just sort-of falls apart at times. It feels unfinished. (A sentiment also echoed by one of its stars, Dustin Hoffman.) It feels like it could use some tightening in some spots, some additional scenes in other places, some more work with the pacing and maybe a re-shoot or two. Then it could be a great, wonderful film. As it is now, it's merely "ok."

When a team consisting of a psychologist, mathematician, biologist and an astrophysicist are sent 1,000 feet below the surface of the ocean to investigate what could be an crashed alien spaceship, things take a bizarre turn when two revelations are unveiled. First, the ship might actually be human in origin, and second... a mysterious spherical object is found in storage on the ship, and it's influence could lead to the brink of disaster.

The performances are almost universally incredible in this film. Featuring the aforementioned Dustin Hoffman, we are also treated to the likes of Samuel L. Jackson, Sharon Stone, Liev Schreiber, Queen Latifah and Peter Coyote. And all are able to make a good impact, even when the script and storyline don't give them too much development as characters. The talent elevates the experience.

Director Barry Levinson does some incredible work here as well. Levinson (responsible for some great films) really treats the audience with a combination of intimacy and spectacle from scene to scene. His sense of storytelling, like the acting, elevates the entire feature. (Particularly admirable are some great scenes of horror and suspense. Levinson makes some interesting choices as to what he chooses to show and what he chooses to hide.)

And many other aspects of the production are equally high in quality. Elliot Goldenthal's score is magnificent and haunting. The cinematography of Adam Greenberg is perfect and gives a great aesthetic. Visual and practical effects are almost uniformly excellent. (Save for one or two "gory" effects that don't quite work.) Everything here just seems to work.

The problem, as said above, is that the film sadly doesn't feel finished. And I can't place my finger on any specific aspect of it that fails. It just needs... more work. Some parts of the film feel overlong and in need of trimming. Other parts are abrupt and feel like scenes and shots are missing. Some moments feel contrived and out of context. The pacing is all over the map. And it betrays everything that works so well. It's just a bit too sloppy in its current form.

I honestly think that if the film was given another month or so of time for post-production and editing (and maybe a week or two of re-shoots), it would have been infinitely better. Heck, it might have even been great.

But as is, the film's troubled storytelling and inconsistent pacing all but ruin the experience. Although I will contend that there is enough good here to make "Sphere" worth checking out. Even if only once for the sake of curiosity.

I give it about an average 6 out of 10. I'd say check it out if you see it on cable or available to rent. You just might like it.

When the military discover what they believe to be a spaceship at the bottom of the ocean they bring in Dr Norman Goodman who had once written a report on the protocol for an alien encounter. His report had named a team of experts – this team is also assembled. The team descend to the craft and begin to find some astonishing things about the craft. However when they find a huge golden sphere they begin to experience problems. Problems that become worse when a storm traps them at the bottom of the ocean.

With a cast like this – you gotta have high hopes. With a director and a writer to match you deserve something fantastic! And for the most part this delivers. The build up is dark, mysterious and exciting. However once the sphere is found it goes downhill. It still has some really good moments – the jellyfish bit is scary and other actions bits are cool. But it gets all muddled up in what the sphere is and who is doing what on the base. It almost manages to hold together until the final half hour then it all just collapses like a flan in a cupboard! It's a shame because for the most part it felt like it was building to something much better, but no.

The cast promised much but didn't deliver. Jackson was great, but I don't think he can be bad – even in a bad movie. Hoffman stutters around like he doesn't know what he's doing. I know he's meant to be playing a character that isn't used to heroics, but he doesn't bring anything. Stone is OK but at times looks like she reading her lines off a board. Coyote is OK and Schreiber is understated by his own hammy standards. It's also cool to see Queen Latifah in a role.

Overall this is worth watching as for the majority it's real good. However you notice that the film has got 30 minutes left to go – make your excuses and leave, by then you've seen the best it has to offer.

After reading many users' mixed comments on the movie..i can't help but feel that a majority have underrated the film. True it could have been better, especially in the latter half, but having read the book first, i did not feel it actually falling off midway like the way other viewers have described it. People who have read the novel will acknowledge that the movie does follow the novel fairly closely. Thus comments about Hoffman's role and the ending are unfair, since i feel they are the closest big-screen reproductions of one of Crichton's best works. I feel Stone's character was the role followed the weakest.

Definitely the giant squid thrills are insufficient (note that Crichton devoted a good part of his novel describing encounters with 'the monster'). I guess animation artists were short budgeted...though the film as a whole still is a visual treat...and the atmosphere is rightly captured, with nice music.

Overall, I think the movie is worth watching and is definitely of a much higher caliber than 'The Lost World'. It follows a psychological-cum-sci-fi thriller theme and i feel is better than the similar flick 'Abyss'. As from the novel's point-of-view...it could have been done better though. 8/10 stars!