Collision fatale

Wow. Where do I start? This is a really silly movie. Any knowledge of space that the writer or director may have comes from watching old "Star Trek" reruns. One ridiculous and impossible thing follows another. I laughed out loud a few times at how cheesy it was. They should have hired a scientific consultant, but I'm guessing they didn't have the budget.

I definitely wouldn't pay to see this movie, but I got it as part of my monthly movie package, so I don't mind. If you don't take it seriously, it's kinda fun.

Warning: This movie's writer also did "Solar Strike" (2005, TV), which is equally silly and scientifically sketchy. Watch it only if you feel like making fun of a bad movie.

Watching a movie requires viewers to suspend their disbelief, and this movie has much to disbelieve. We can talk about the unoriginal story, cookie-cutter characters, stiff acting, and phony science, but what's the point? A movie is worth your time if it entertains, and "Earthstorm" succeeds at least in doing that, so let's look at what this film gives us to enjoy.

First, the special effects are not bad. People tend to confuse the "how" with the "what" when judging special effects so that the effects often get the blame for low plausibility. In this film, though, "how" they show is credible even if "what" they show is not.

Second, the music is quite good. It sustains tension throughout the film and adds emotional content at key points--exactly what it a movie score supposed to do.

Third, the acting is adequate. This isn't a film by Cameron, Kubrick, or Crichton, so let's cut the cast some slack. I've never met any demolition experts, but I bet they're more like Stephen Baldwin in "Earthstorm" than like Bruce Willis in "Armageddon". And seeing Dirk Benedict ("Faceman" from the 1980s TV series "The A-Team") as the smug, self-important science advisor to The White House is a treat.

Best of all is the film's message. More-realistic sci-fi movies such as "Alien", "Europa Report", "Gravity", and "The Martian" tell us that space exploration is dangerous and largely unnecessary as if filmmakers want us to stay on our home planet. "Earthstorm" has a positive message: The more we know about space, the better prepared we are to protect life on earth.

Sci-fi has come a long way from the 1950s, but anyone who admires "The Day the Earth Stood Still" has no excuse for disliking this movie.

This is a 10$ version of Armageddon and other comet/asteroid movies. Someone needs to explain the laws of gravity in space to the producers. ;-) worth a good laugh though and I thought that was Starbuck from BS in the movie, he has aged well. Anyhow if you really do not have anything better to do to waste your time on a non school night or whatever or are really really bored so ahead and watch it. People cannot walk around in space on a space shuttle unless it is spinning really fast to create some artificial gravity Acting was okay although the woman actress could probably use a few more lessons.

funstuf

The effects in the movie are horrible. As stated before they look like N64 type graphics. The plot seems to be ripped off from Armageddon. An asteroid hits the moon causing a fault and chunks of the moon start flying towards earth.

The one thing that was cool is that ASI is actually Mohawk College in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada dressed up. To be more specific it is the college's I-Wing, which is the Information Technology wing. And the circular room with the TV in the wall is actually there... not just for the movie.

To sum up in one word "underbudget" I wouldn't buy the movie.

Because of an enormous meteor impact, the moon begins to break up, threatening to pummel the Earth with an immense number of meteorites, as well as ravage it with bizarre atmospheric conditions.

It's all routine, incoming meteors threatening the end of the world. Going in, you know this is just escapist nonsense (fashioned suspiciously like Armageddon, but with a lower budget), and will require suspension of disbelief on a grand scale, but be prepared for a meteor shower of plot and character clichés, cheap effects, and an obvious outcome.

The movie spends a lot of time developing likable and interesting characters, and the respectably good acting helps accomplish this. If only the script writers had been just as conscientious about scientific plausibility, the movie would have been better off. You expect less than awesome special effects on this budget, but some of them look downright cheesy. The fireball meteors, for example, looked phonier than Monopoly money.

Clichés: we got 'em: dumb government big shot who makes a nuisance out of himself and mocks others, maverick scientist, meteors targeting big city skyscrapers and nothing else, unknown nobody whose expertise (in this case a building demolisher) saves the world, etc.

Plot holes are far too numerous to list; my two favorites are 1) nobody except the principals suspect the smoking moon (which oddly is always a full moon) and accompanying asteroid bombardment might be related, and 2) the Space Shuttle dodgeball game at a zillion mph with a million meteorites--right out of an old video game. I expected to see the pilot's game score appear in the upper corner of the screen at any moment.

Fun, and laughably outrageous. Looking for plot holes is but one way to enjoy this. Any movie about a guy who implodes buildings being called upon to implode the moon, that's a movie to see, folks.