Tempête solaire : Au péril de la Terre

I'm on a disaster movie kick on YouTube and a lot of movies are great if I use the fast-forward button to get to the 'good parts'. I didn't have to do that much with Cat 8. There were a lot of interesting topics, issues and drama to take in. The basic gist is - don't mess with the sun or you're going to get burnt.

The movie's pace kept the plot moving along so it kept my interest. It's shown in two parts on YouTube and the first one ends in a cliff-hanger. I originally thought that I'd watch the second part the next day, but nope. I stayed up until after midnight, basically binge-watching the entire thing. It originally aired as a television mini-series in 2013, but I'd never heard of it. It was made in the Netherlands, but the language is English so it's all good.

I was really impressed with the special effects, especially when the earth started creating canyons and reshaping the land in certain states. The solar flares were cool, the aurora borealis was fascinating, and the effects of the plasma hits were well done. If I had to rate Cat 8 on the level of disaster, I'd give it a five.

As with all catastrophic movies, there is always a human element - the drama. That aspect is a little tricky because of the typical cliches that are endemic to the disaster movie genre - money, power, ego, romance, betrayals, abuse of power, megalomania, altruism, self-sacrifice, and even blended families. Every single one of these was explored in Cat: 8. Most worked but some, as you can imagine due to the length of the overall film, were a bit drawn out, hence the value of the FF button. As I mentioned above, I didn't have to use it quite that much, which was a pleasant surprise. I enjoyed the interaction with the lead character, Dr. Michael Ranger, and his family and friends; the most important friend being Dr. Jane Whitlow.

With all good movies, there should be a villain everyone can get behind to root for their demise. The villain is extreme because even in the midst of the world's potential end, the villain refuses to repent and instead doubles down on their chosen path and does dastardly things to ensure it. It takes the intuition of one person of importance that gives a viewer hints of hope that all is not lost. It created some moments of solid suspense and nail-biting.

The main romance is between Dr. Ranger's daughter and her boyfriend. Dr. Ranger does not like the man his daughter is dating at all, and I had no problem picking up on those cues. There were scenes where I thought his dislike made him out to be a real jerk and I didn't like him for that. As I watched Tim, the boyfriend, be all heroic and like, I was sure that the good doctor would warm up to him. Be prepared to hold your breath for quite some time. It kind of took the "you're not good enough" cliché a bit too far. But it IS a disaster movie after all.

On the whole, Category 8 (CAT. 8) is an epic disaster movie worthy of its genre. Make sure you have plenty of time to view the whole thing in one sitting. I am glad I stayed up late to view the entire movie in one shot as it kept the continuity of the energy, drama and intensity dialed up for my thorough enjoyment.

Seeing is believing: hilarious version of Thunderbirds with a team of wooden actors led by a defunct Modine (b. 1959, here with dyed hair) taking the place of the puppets (alas, without Penelope). In this cardboard effort even the interiors and set-designs were lost for words, as were the prozac-fuelled out-of-work white actors pissed as hell that all the decent movies are packed with African Americans professionals and this was their last shot, because they had promised to take their kids to Legoland. Rarely was so little owed to so few for so much, as Winston might have said between cigars and whiskey. But let's dispense with the words, since the Americans' language is one of bullets: Shoot 'em up, Scotty! Thank heavens we can always rely on the USA to save the entire frigging planet, while joining up all of humanity in a chorus of unity, right? This movie is so inept it really deserves 10 stars.

I agree completely with Ed Blackadder's review. Why is it so very difficult for the writers of scripts that pretend to be "science" fiction to ask even a serious amateur science enthusiast to review their scripts (I'd do it for free) to catch their innumerable errors and misrepresentations of natural phenomenon? Did the writers of this bad joke sleep through their grade school and high school science classes? Apparently. And they must also believe that everyone else did, too.

If you are a SCIENCE fiction fan, you'll want to skip this one unless you want to watch for a few laughs. However, that probably won't hold you through the entire show. I stopped watching to write this after the hilariously wrong satellite sequence about 20 minutes in. Gawd...

In addition to all the scientific malarkey discussed previously....the script is infantile, amateurish......can I be more direct.

Where do they find these writers? The concept had a lot of potential as a real good suspense drama...but they had to put in lines like "it's really deep"...about the chasm. And the world is about to end but Mathew M and his partner scientist spend time re-connecting.....wow!!!

An elite task force with automatic weapons is held off by two citizens with handguns.

I know that they likely did not have the $ that a series like "24" has, but lord have mercy it doesn't take a rocket scientist to put together a realistic, mature screenplay. I could go on and on about the silliness of the script but I'm too ticked off about a potentially good story being wasted away by such infantile dialog and situations.

Simply infantile!!

Yeah, the "science" is laughable at best. I am in no way a scientist but I was laughing out loud at their "science" by 5 minutes in. By half an hour in, I was just rolling my eyes. This movie is pathetically badly written, the entire storyline is ridiculous. The characters are either completely underwhelming and forgettable, ridiculously perfect, or just plain a$$holes. The evil White House science guy (I have no idea what his position was, I think his name was Brian?) is too busy carrying out personal vendettas to care that the world is literally coming to an end. The whole thing is just one big hot mess that someone tossed into a dumpster fire.

Even for someone who loves bad disaster movies (10.5 Apocalypse is one of my all time favorite movies) this is a terrible a movie. Don't waste your time!