This film about an impending volcanic disaster that threatens the planet has a lot of upside.
Formula films like this depend on writing and directing, even more than the acting. The direction here is logical, and the writing is pretty good.
What makes or breaks such a film is the writing of the characters, and of being natural, or what we call in writing, "not expository".
This pretty well does that. The characters are good for the most part. There are two poorly written characters, though, that bring this down. The usual naysayer, like the mayor who denies there is a shark at the beach, and the martyr.
The movie would have been more of a "film" with these two characters toned down, especially the martyr. It must have been a tough role for the actor, because he seriously doesn't have motivation written into the role.
What really works for this film is the lack of "contrivance", the ability to not "play God". This is something that movies did too much from about 1965 till about 1985. Whether you play God to kill ogres or to kill nice people, it looks contrived when you do it.
This movie lets the cards like where they lie. It's as though they rolled the dice to see who might become a victim of the volcano. The people who are engulfed in lava are credible people, likable enough, not overly, but three dimensionally. One doesn't feel like one is being preached to.
Hoping that isn't a spoiler. I hope instead that it gives an idea of what to expect, and if you're into a natural film with good characters and writing, you will appreciate this. If you are into the usual preachy movies, you won't.
Formula films like this depend on writing and directing, even more than the acting. The direction here is logical, and the writing is pretty good.
What makes or breaks such a film is the writing of the characters, and of being natural, or what we call in writing, "not expository".
This pretty well does that. The characters are good for the most part. There are two poorly written characters, though, that bring this down. The usual naysayer, like the mayor who denies there is a shark at the beach, and the martyr.
The movie would have been more of a "film" with these two characters toned down, especially the martyr. It must have been a tough role for the actor, because he seriously doesn't have motivation written into the role.
What really works for this film is the lack of "contrivance", the ability to not "play God". This is something that movies did too much from about 1965 till about 1985. Whether you play God to kill ogres or to kill nice people, it looks contrived when you do it.
This movie lets the cards like where they lie. It's as though they rolled the dice to see who might become a victim of the volcano. The people who are engulfed in lava are credible people, likable enough, not overly, but three dimensionally. One doesn't feel like one is being preached to.
Hoping that isn't a spoiler. I hope instead that it gives an idea of what to expect, and if you're into a natural film with good characters and writing, you will appreciate this. If you are into the usual preachy movies, you won't.