Magma - Disastro infernale

Well, this isn't the worst Sci-Fi Channel Original Production that I've seen, but it may just be the most boring. We start with a college professor and a few students going to explore a volcano in Iceland. Of course the volcano erupts, and they barely escape with their lives. Turns out the professor knows some genius who has worked out a theory of how all the world's volcanoes will start erupting, and we see the scenario played out via the usual cheap looking computer generated special effects. Loads and loads of cheap looking computer generated effects. Toss in the stupendously clichéd government bureaucrats who don't take the threat seriously, some utter nonsense about how humans have caused the Earth's core to expand, and a breathtakingly dull subplot concerning the professor's ex wife, and that about wraps it up. Oh wait, I almost forgot the environmentalist speech at the end, where we're supposed to learn from our mistakes...and some other stuff. Sorry, I'm afraid I nodded off there for a minute. I'm sleepy after sitting through this thing.

Overall, you've got a pile of characters we couldn't care less about, a plot that's identical to a dozen other really crappy disaster movies, a script that sometimes sounds as if it was written by someone who wasn't a native English speaker, and there you have it.

These film makers really need to hire a consultant to at least give them enough technical insight into their subject matter so that it doesn't make the average layman laugh at the absurdity of it.

Edit: Kind of funny, I apparently wrote this review on January 26, and here it is February 6, and I can't remember ever having seen this movie.

You know the flaw with disaster films? It's not a foe that can be fought. Each follows the same formula, run away, talk, run away, talk, run away, then a finale that essentially involves the disaster simply ending or some ridiculous pseudoscience.

Ontop of that every such movie needs a scientist who relays his/her fears regarding the forthcoming disaster to the government and gets ignored.

Magma: Volcanic Disaster is exactly what you'd expect for a movie of it's sort. Scyfy original with poor sfx, generic writing and absolutely no originality at all.

Credit where credit is due the movie doesn't have the worst cast but there isn't much they could do to raise this paint by numbers affair above the mediocre.

The Good:

Amy Jo "Pink Power Ranger" Johnson

Xander "So very tired veteran" Berkeley

The Bad:

SFX

Lack of originality

Yet another example of a made-for-cable film that started with a workable premise and a couple of really good actors, but managed to screw it all up. Low budget isn't always a bad thing, but somehow the biggest deficit here is in the imagination column. Absurd situations, ridiculous plot oversights and contradictions, supporting actors who just recite lines, and awkward dialogue make this painful to watch. When you find yourself awake and channel-surfing at 3AM, if you happen across this, go ahead and take a look, but don't go out of your way to find it otherwise. Honestly, the Sci-fi channel has talented people at its disposal, couldn't they have managed one more script treatment before production started? At least buy the poor writer a thesaurus and a geology textbook!

The movie does not start well. The writing, acting and sound are all about as bad as it gets, suggesting the entire movie may end up being a disaster. Not true. But the long-dormant Iceland volcano with an unpronounceable name starting with "Troll" does erupt suddenly and quickly, with terrible consequences for the people we didn't likely enjoy watching.

This is on the level of a TV-movie, but not as much of a disaster as some disaster movies. The actors playing Peter and Bree are actually pretty good, once Bree is no longer perky (or perhaps you can count her perky behavior as good acting). Bree is too perky and enthusiastic to be believable as an intelligent scientist, but that will change later.

The writing is about on the same level as the typical movie of this type, but the last half-hour or so is quite exciting. Some actors with only a few lines seem like they are sitting around the table reading their lines for the first time.

The President of the United States is no Kiefer Sutherland, but he does a good job.

The visual effects are competently done but not spectacular. In most scenes we see only the minimum necessary to communicate what is happening, but toward the end we get a little more detail. Violence is not graphic (unless you count people catching on fire, but even then you can't really see anything) but several people surely die. In one case we are told the person died.

This isn't bad enough to be good, but it's good enough not to be bad.

For a disaster movie, then it wasn't too shabby. But for entertainment, then "Magma: Volcanic Disaster" didn't fully live up to other movies of the same genre.

The story in "Magma: Volcanic Disaster" is pretty much as in most other disaster movies. A series of cataclysmic events, in this case; volcanic eruptions, are threatening our relatively peaceful planet. And of course, a scientist predicts this, but no one listens - not before it is almost too late, anyway. And of course now, it is up to a very small group of people to stop the coming of the end of days. Yes, there you go, end of the story summary. Sounds like something you've seen in other movies before this one? You got it!

The effects in "Magma: Volcanic Disaster" were actually decent enough. Though there are other disaster movies available out there with far better effects. That being said, then it should be noted that the effects in this movie are not bad, and there are disaster movies out there with far worse effects.

A fairly decent group of actors and actresses are on the list in this movie. Though the movie was carried almost exclusively by Xander Berkeley (playing Peter Shepherd).

Now, "Magma: Volcanic Disaster" is a movie without any real roller-coaster effects of thrills and suspense. It is a pretty flat ride from start to end. Sure, there are a couple of scenes that could come off as dramatic, but they were far apart and were just there to keep you interested. The movie could have used more destruction and mayhem from Mother Earth's side, but that was not to be.

Having sat through this movie, I can honestly say that it wasn't a super great movie, nor was it a horribly bad movie. However, it is not a disaster movie that I will be returning to for a second watching, it just doesn't have that much value in it. Especially because the story wants you to buy into these volcanic eruptions will result in the end of humanity and the world, if they are not hindered, but the movie never builds up the feeling of the end of the world is at hand.

If you like disaster movies, then give "Magma: Volcanic Disaster" a chance. It might not be the best of movies, but it is a good attempt at the genre.