Magma Volcanic Disaster (Disaster Cycle)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: C-     Telefilm: C

 

 

Thanks to digital effects, disaster fiction has now arrived on TV in no way since the cheap and unintentional howler telefilms made in the 1970s when the big feature films like Airport and Earthquake were huge box office hits.  With the new cycle that began with the likes of Twister far dead at the box office, TV has tried to take over this subgenre as a source of high ratings.  None of the productions, no matter how they have hit, have been that good and Ian Gilmour’s Magma Volcanic Disaster (2005) is another explosive dud.

 

This time, we have to look out for molten lava, but it is so digital that you may laugh more than scream in terror.  The capable character actor Xavier Berkeley is the lead here in the “scientist who is the only one who can see is coming” role and he plays it well, but we have seen this too many times to the point that even his efforts cannot save it.  At least he tries.  Can’t say the same about Gilmour or the tired, formulaic Paul Joshua Reuben/Chase Parker teleplay.  Only addicts should catch this one.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 was shot on digital High Definition video and looks it, likely at 1080i and has detail issues throughout.  Lorenzo Senatore lensed this, but he too can only do so much and the result is as unmemorable as the script.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix seems like an afterthought upgrade with limited surrounds and dialogue that is only recorded so well.  Explosions are behind the feature film equivalents, which do not help.  The only extra is previews for other Sony product.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo