Miami Magma

Movies can be made with many purposes in mind: to entertain, to provoke, to express or elicit emotion. This movie neither failed, nor succeeded in any of these categories to a great degree.

The acting was serviceable, neither good nor laughable. The script failed to register any response or provoke any emotion. The camera work was...decent? Ok? The packing was solid though, never sticking in one place or on one scene for very long. The only parts that were enjoyable were the three or four truly schlocky moments, which are what people watch disaster movies for. Those ranged from, "That doesn't work that way." to "Yes! Hole! Through! The chest!" The effects are suitably TV movie level and thus, the most ironically enjoyable part of the film.

Neither painful to sit through, nor enjoyable enough to sit through again, nor recommend it.

I doubt there are many movies with such poor scripting and acting as this little beauty. Hunter is terribly wooden, but looks magnificent and everytime you hear that antipodean accent your crying out for more - well I am anyway. Pretty standard bulk B movie fodder plot with some pseudo science chucked in to give the appearance of intelligence, but don't let that fool you as the brain cells have left the building. Just watch it for super heroine Rachel and a brilliant cheesy turn by Cleavant Derricks as an evil oil driller.

The previous reviewers have pretty well summarized this SyFy Channel "epic". It's a by-the-numbers--for the SyFy Channel, anyway--story about a disaster threatening a large city and caused in part by the actions of a corporation that will do anything to increase its profits. It's better than some SyFy Channel movies, and worse than others--if you know anything about the kinds of movies SyFy makes, you'll know what I mean--and about the only REAL reason to watch it is a poolside bikini contest that's interrupted by a volcano turning Miami into a giant steambath. SyFy seemed to have put more money into hiring scads of incredibly hot bikini models--and there are, thankfully, a LOT of them--for this scene than it did for the entire special effects budget, for which they have earned my undying gratitude. Otherwise, there's not really much of a reason to watch this.

This was a very fun movie to watch, full of action. Dumb science, but not bad. Certainly it's not awful science, more like "implausible." Even if one supposed there might be a volcano in Miami, the special effects were not in accordance with what one might expect a true volcano to do. Also, I found the final scene of the movie startling. If it's what I think it was, then it was the final, most implausible special effect of all. On the other hand, if it were plausible, then it wouldn't be much of a movie, more like a docudrama perhaps.

The characters were what made the movie interesting, though even there, it seemed that people were acting in contradiction. One minute, a character is acting moral and wants to do the right thing, the next, they are willing to throw everything they said out the window for a cut of the proceeds. Another character has a history of being dishonest, then suddenly they have a conscience. A young woman is flaunting herself, then suddenly she becomes mature. I guess it was the inconsistencies that amused me more than anything.

Just one last comment: This movie played under the name "Swamp Volcano" on the SyFy Channel but it is the same movie.

Miami Magma is about as good as you'd expect from a TV disaster movie: It isn't very good. There's a big asterisk here. As a low-budget endeavor, with inherently low expectations, there's a chance of being relatively good. Not as in the cult classic line, "So bad, it's good"; rather, the more respectable, "It isn't that bad," so it's good.

The plot moves the standard volcano scenario out of the usual places, all the way to South Florida. This is a way to keep it fresh, most likely. The opportunity is somewhat wasted. Miami culture, real or stereotyped, barely figures-in except for an ill-fated Spring Break beach party. (This intends to set some sort of subplot, but the film proceeds to forget about the clever survivor). The city scenes clearly were not shot in Miami judging from the trees.

The unlikely location is rationalized well. The plot starts with Dr. Antoinette Vitrini (Rachel Hunter), a college professor who isn't taken seriously in her research suggesting the Gulf of Mexico is a giant caldera pulsing with magma. Enter evil oil company. The only thing more dangerous than an evil oil company is an evil oil company drilling into a secret supervolcano, in a world where regulation is nowhere to be found. It's easy work covering-up a sunken oil rig and passing-off the CEO's self-destruction in a manic steam accident as a heart attack. (The authorities either missed the scorched corpse and witness who watched it happen, or they don't exist - more likely the latter in this Miami.) Until now a quiet voice of conscience, the CEO'S lackey engineer Ray Miller (Cleavant Derricks) quickly sells out to the Board, which also happens to be evil, and becomes consummately awful. Because why not?

Isolated fissures and steam events occur throughout Miami, roasting characters who are introduced just to be roasted. Antoinette, her ex-husband Brad (J. D. Evermore), flirtatious sister Emily (Melissa Ordway), and research wiz/unwitting chick magnet Brandon (Griff Furst) embark on a mission to thwart Evil Oil Company's illegal projects before the city blows. The writing is quite good as the plot escalates. Tracking devices, traitors, imposters, arson, helicopters, kidnappings, ransoms, shootouts in factories loaded with dangerous chemicals. It's all here. The final drama is not found cliché self-sacrifice, but one character's dignified redemption. It has touch, maybe even soul.

Miami Magma is full of faults and incongruities. The ominous background music will not shut up, even during inane conversations. There aren't enough extras panicking about the coming cataclysm, making us rely on the scramble of our heroes to remember anything is going on. Most of the effects are created by smoke machines and cheesy fire animations. All this can be forgiven in a B-list disaster movie.

Interestingly, the inherent genre and money-enforced limitations of Miami Magma help make it a competent movie. It is priced out of effects-crazy excitement; the boneheaded kind where one can't even tell what is going on, just that the situation is bad, very bad. Miami Magma relies, instead, on solid performances by the actors and a credible script. No, it isn't high art. Yes, it's built on blatant unrealism. But you basically know what you're getting when you sit down in your armchair to watch something like this. This film gives you your time's worth.