Descente en Enfer

Another generic Sci-Fi Channel and yet another variation on Jules Verne's JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH. This one's closer to THE CORE, but the intent is still the same; the Earth is heating up and spewing lava, so a team of scientists hop into the 'Mole' and ride down the same lava tunnels to sort it out. To fill up running time, there's some conspiracy sub-plotting, a bad guy or two, and a traditional romance.

There's also little to distinguish this from a dozen others. The opening is more fun than the latter stuff, because we're treated to a handful of disaster staples, from lava shooting up out of the ground to buildings being demolished in an earthquake. Once the action shifts below ground level, however, things get worse; the movie becomes a repetitive chore to sit through, cutting between cheesy graphics and the even cheesier acting inside the craft.

Human roles are taken by ex-pin up Luke Perry, looking old and tired, and STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION's Michael Dorn as an officious government type. Nobody else seems to bat an eyelid, and I was bored of this long before the end. Unfortunately for me, a local TV channel is having an "end of the world" week, so there are at least three more of these to sit through...

The SciFi Channel's 2005 movie "Descent" is a weak to fair reworking of the old "journey to the center of the earth" plot.

The movie appears to suffer from the classic failings of a SciFi Channel made for TV movie. Sets are limited and one gets redundant views of actors at sparse consoles intermixed with low budget animation of the vessel called "the mole." There is some action and some intrigue, but the movie gets a bit redundant with just three main sets (mole, cave, and control room) and the actors who try to twist the uninspired dialog into something entertaining.

Luke Perry does a good job as Dr. Jake Rollins, but Michael Dorn ( aka Warf from Star Trek) appears one dimensional with General Fielding's stilted dialog.

This might seem like another homage to Jules Verne's piece of classic of nineteenth century French literature "Journey to the Center of the Earth;" it is not. For that watch the 1959 classic "Journey to the Center of the Earth" with Pat Boone and James Mason. The "Descent" is another "tunnel digging vessel heading to the center of the earth movie." If you like this sci-fi theme try episode # 1.2 from "The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne" titled "Queen Victoria and the Giant Mole." If you desire the big budget modern special effects, there is 2003's "The Core" with Hilary Swank. These choices may entertain and stimulate your imagination more.

However if you love science fiction, have nothing else to watch, and want to rest your brain; "Descent" will suffice.

This movie is a great movie ONLY if you need something to sit and laugh at the stupidity of it. As a geologist this movie gets most of the important facts wrong and uses actors that are too young to even be considered in the top of their fields. It is interesting how it shows spurting lava in massive caverns below the Earth's surface. It also is funny how seismically active areas are shown to have massive destruction from a 6.5 magnitude earthquake. They seem to forget the building standards in these areas would be higher needing a bigger quake to do this much damage. Also it is funny how much they make the coast line of Washington State and also Oregon to look as though they are nice beaches of Southern California. The Jelly donut analogy is very entertaining even if the way it is used is wrong. The director does a good job of adding more comic relief with the 2 "supossed" PhD's.

This movie's script is indistinguishable from others, most notably The Core, another bad movie. It's pretty clear why Luke Perry doesn't get much work, but to see the beloved Lt. Commander Worf (Michael Dorn) resigned to something like this is just sad.

I really can't think of one plot twist that isn't seen coming a mile away. That's not an exaggeration.

Special effects are very poor, even by TV standards. The lava flow at the beginning of the movie signaling the coming global disaster, starts things off at a very amateurish level. And it gets no better from that point on.

Science team leader Dr. Jake Rollins (Luke Perry) finds unusual minerals in the water. They are shocked when a waterfall turns into a lavafall. Earthquake strikes Seattle. Marsha Crawford (Mimi Kuzyk) leads the government response fearing it to be the result of Project Deep run by Dr. Palmer Drake (Rick Roberts) and General Fielding (Michael Dorn). Dr. Karen West (Marie Ward) is a member of the Project and Jake's former girlfriend. It's a deep drilling project for energy. The fix is placing a bomb deep in the earth.

This is basically a different The Core (2003) and that's not a high target to shoot for. The target isn't high and this one falls short of even that. This is a B-movie version of a B-movie with A-movie budget. I actually don't mind this movie until it starts drilling into the Earth. The story has nothing to do but wait for the inevitable success. This is no The Core and The Core is not even a good movie.