| Product: |
The Core (DVD) |
| Date: |
11/05/07 (118 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Visually exciting, generally entertaining
Disadvantages: It's very silly really
I’ve read reviews of this film that heralded it as the best thing since sliced bread. I’ve read others that linked it only to a turkey. As such, I’d like to position my review somewhere in between. Think of this as a turkey sandwich.
When a group of individuals suddenly drops dead for no apparent reason, the military drafts in the services of two scientists to try and identify what caused their deaths. Josh Keyes – an expert in electro-magnetics – quickly identifies that all the dead people used pacemakers. As such, he suspects that a sudden electro-magnetic pulse has brought about their deaths. Confident that this was just a freak of nature, the military closes the case and asks no more questions. But that isn’t the end of it. Around the world, strange phenomena start to take place. As he watches events unfold, Keyes has a growing suspicion that things are not as straight-forward as was first assumed and he takes his findings to a government scientist, Conrad Zimsky. Zimsky initially dismisses him, but when he reads the report in detail, he immediately alerts the military to its contents.
It would seem that the Earth is in grave danger. The core of the planet is about to stop spinning, which will have terrible environmental consequences. To start with, there will be powerful freak electrical storms, followed shortly after by holes in the protective layer around the planet. Once this layer disappears completely, the planet will be completely at the mercy of the Sun’s radiation – and will literally bake. There would appear to be no solution – the only way to solve the problem would be to drill down into the core and somehow charge it back into life. So how do you get to the core? Enter Dr Edward Brazleton and his incredible new machine. And so the military sets about the creation of a team of individuals who can man the new machine and literally journey to the centre of the Earth. But nothing is ever that simple, is it?
If the story behind The Core sounds absolutely ridiculous then that is probably because it is. In order to get anything out of this film it is absolutely imperative that you leave your common sense at home with the cat. The events shown in the film are so completely far-fetched that if you don’t you will simply find yourself laughing in ridicule at everything you see. Fortunately for me, the cat was quite happy with his new toy and I managed to pass a couple of hours without too many complaints.
One thing that The Core realises from the start is that if things get too quiet, the audience might start to think about the plot, so it rushes through the proceedings at a breakneck pace. The film opens with a sequence of strange events, interspersed with Keyes’ investigations that gradually demonstrate the growing plight of the planet. Apart from the people dropping dead in the street (I was surprised at how many Americans have pacemakers…) there is a freak pigeon storm in London (I jest you not) and a near disastrous landing of an American space shuttle. Such is the speed and drama of these things that you do become quite absorbed in what’s happening. But let’s face it, you watch a disaster movie to see a disaster and there aren’t enough of them in The Core. Rome’s reduction to rubble by an electrical storm looks a bit silly, and the only bit that I thought was really any good was the disintegration of The Golden Gate Bridge beneath a freak wave of solar radiation. Don’t be fooled by the trailers into thinking that The Core is full of dramatic disaster scenes. There is plenty of action – but most of it takes place beneath the surface of the planet. The special effects are fairly good, although the sequences below the surface are so largely based on imagination that virtually anything goes.
I’m not an expert about such things, but I’m guessing that most of what we saw in The Core was completely dreamt up. As the crew of the giant drill works their way down through the planet, they seem completely impervious to things like heat and air pressure, all of which is explained away by Dr Brazleton’s invention of a protective substance that he fondly calls Unobtanium. Hmm. Anyway, that’s how things go, until the crew find a hollow bit, which appears to be a cavern filled with huge diamonds. Whether or not this is actually the case or not, I’m not entirely sure, but as they bounced from one predicament to another, two words kept popping into my head – “wasted” and “opportunity”. For a journey into such uncharted territory it was rather disappointing to see so few shocks and surprises, and it is only really one unexpected phenomenon that throws a spanner in the works. I did wonder whether a nasty monster was about to appear at several stages in the movie, and I can’t help thinking it might have been better if one had. That aside, the similarities with that other fairly recent action/disaster film Armageddon are unavoidable and things largely go the same way.
What lifted The Core above Armageddon for me was the crew of the giant drill. Whilst there were no Oscar winning performances, I found myself liking them all and we were spared the misery of a slushy romantic interlude supported by a hideous Aerosmith song. Josh Keyes is the cheesy hero of the piece and Aaron Eckhart looked cheesy, so I guess he was probably a good choice. Stanley Tucci’s chain smoking Dr Conrad Zimsky was deliciously obnoxious, although when I closed my eyes all I could think of was Higgins from Magnum P.I. Delroy Lindo was well placed as the eccentric Dr Brazleton. Lindo normally seems to suffer at the hands of the casting manager and ends up playing dumb cops, but here he had a chance to do something a bit different and did it rather well. Hilary Swank (whilst being pretty and female and thoroughly nice) seemed a touch out of place. The script hardly provided the Oscar potential that we would normally expect from her and I couldn’t help thinking she was a little bit too young to be ranked a major. But she wasn’t blonde, and she didn’t wear a tight wet T-shirt so I guess she broke the mould if nothing else. The interaction of the crew members provides some tension, some humour and some heartache and (in an entirely superficial kind of way) works well.
I think it’s probably a little bit unfair to criticise this movie for being silly, excitable, brainless pap, because I think it knows that’s exactly what it is. I never really detected that the makers wanted the film to be taken seriously, and simply wanted to have a bit of fun. If you can remove the barrier of being offended that this is an insult to your intelligence, then you’ll probably quite enjoy it.
Summary: Not bad eco-thriller - those poor pigeons!
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