If disaster movies reveal anything about mankind, they display our contempt for Mother Nature. Emotions run rampant and pandemonium rules in the extravagant Chinese disaster epic "Skyfire" after a volcano erupts without warning, stampeding thousands of panic-stricken people, and virtually destroys a tropical island paradise. Disaster movies are predictable, and British director Simon West and scribes Wei Bu and Sidney King observe all the usual cliches while they dazzle us with plunging fireballs etching smoke trails across the skies and cliffhanger heroics involving daredevils hanging on by sheer tenacity. The stunning CGI visual effects will keep your eyes riveted as gray smoke clouds billow, searing orange magma boils down hillsides like terrestrial streams, and those inevitable fireballs make craters out of whatever lays in their path, while screaming people scramble for sanctuary. "Skyfire" evokes memories of the Irwin Allen disaster epic "When Time Ran Out" (1980), with Paul Newman, William Holden, and Jacqueline Bisset, where a volcano incinerated a South Pacific resort. "Dante's Peak" (1997) starring Pierce Brosnan & Linda Hamilton as well as "Volcano" (1997) with Tommy Lee Jones were the last major contemporary American volcano catastrophe epics. Mind you, little has changed since them or even Paul W. S. Anderson's historical hokum "Pompeii" (2014) with Kit Harington, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Kiefer Sutherland. You can find worse ways to waste 97 minutes than watching this unrated film toplining Jason Isaacs as a treacherous western entrepreneur and Taiwanese-Australian actress Hannah Quinlivan as a vulcanologist with daddy issues. Interestingly, "Skyfire" is tainted with any ulterior Chinese Communist political propaganda, unlike the recent Jackie Chan thriller "Vanguard."
The blistering "Skyfire" prologue alienates a father and his daughter. Chinese vulcanologist Tao (Xueqi Wang) is working at a base camp on the Pacific Island of Tianhuo in the shadow of an enormous volcano. Belching fire and ash, the volcano erupts and disperses flaming meteors like an artillery barrage. Meanwhile, Tao's wife Sue (Alice Rietveld) and their young daughter, Meng Li (newcomer Bee Rogers), lurk in the field, near the volcano when it rumbles to life. Jumping into a truck, Tao careens off to rescue them. Although Tao's daughter caught a ride on a fleeing dump truck, Sue is pulverized by a sizzling chunk of rock. Afterward, Tao explains the Tianhuo volcano eruption lasted a mere twenty minutes, dispersing death and destruction across the island, compared to the 12-hour Pompeii eruption. At this point, Tao laments the construction of a luxury resort park not only on the island, but also featuring an elevator that lowers spectators into the mouth of the volcano. Naturally, Tao criticizes the industrialist, Jack Harris (Jason Isaacs of "Black Hawk Down"), for erecting the resort. The man who built this resort. Since the tragic death of his wife, Tao has been estranged from his daughter, Meng (Hannah Quinlivan of "Skyscraper"), who has grown up and become a vulcanologist, too.
Meantime, Harris is embarking on Phase 2 of his resort, and his wife and he give investors a tour, while tourists teem into the premises. Harris cites the usual objection, "Only a lunatic would build a world-class resort on a ticking time bomb of molten earth." Nevertheless, Harris projects Phase 2 will make him debt-free. He appeals to these investors with statistics: "Ten-thousand visitors a month representing hundreds of millions of dollars a year." Of course, he classifies 'danger' as the prime incentive for visitors. "Because today's tourists want to live life on the edge." Suddenly, the paradise that Harris has created turns literally into Dante's Inferno, and he must supervise the evacuation. Sadly, many of those thrill seekers die gruesome deaths in their haste to leave the island hellhole. No sooner has Tao warned his colleagues about the impending disaster than he flies to the resort to bring his rebellious daughter back before she cremates herself. Predictably, Meng refuses to leave, and Tao winds up lending a hand during the evacuation. "Skyfire" doesn't waste time igniting its spectacular CGI fireworks and our scientists scramble against time to save lives.
Simon West, whose credits include the original "Laura Croft: Tomb Raider," "Con-Air," and "Expendables 2," thrives in this calamitous cauldron. He orchestrates on-location filming in Malaysia, with studio work in a diving tank, and dazzling CGI pyrotechnics so everything appears reasonably seamless. The evacuation constitutes an Indiana Jones escapade with everybody braving a gauntlet of obstacles. Before the volcano erupts, West stages a romantic, underwater interlude. A guy proposes to his gal, and they dive into the depths to an open clam containing her wedding ring! An adrenalin-laced scene involving two parallel monorail coaches hurdling back to the resort is the most exciting scene. Passengers hurl themselves from one coach to another in a desperate bid to escape the doomed coach whose rail has been damaged. The Jeep automotive manufacturer gets a terrific plug as their vehicle survives one misfortune after another. Predictable but entertaining, "Skyfire" musters more than enough mayhem and revelations, especially Jack Harris' last-minute redemption.
Meantime, Harris is embarking on Phase 2 of his resort, and his wife and he give investors a tour, while tourists teem into the premises. Harris cites the usual objection, "Only a lunatic would build a world-class resort on a ticking time bomb of molten earth." Nevertheless, Harris projects Phase 2 will make him debt-free. He appeals to these investors with statistics: "Ten-thousand visitors a month representing hundreds of millions of dollars a year." Of course, he classifies 'danger' as the prime incentive for visitors. "Because today's tourists want to live life on the edge." Suddenly, the paradise that Harris has created turns literally into Dante's Inferno, and he must supervise the evacuation. Sadly, many of those thrill seekers die gruesome deaths in their haste to leave the island hellhole. No sooner has Tao warned his colleagues about the impending disaster than he flies to the resort to bring his rebellious daughter back before she cremates herself. Predictably, Meng refuses to leave, and Tao winds up lending a hand during the evacuation. "Skyfire" doesn't waste time igniting its spectacular CGI fireworks and our scientists scramble against time to save lives.
Simon West, whose credits include the original "Laura Croft: Tomb Raider," "Con-Air," and "Expendables 2," thrives in this calamitous cauldron. He orchestrates on-location filming in Malaysia, with studio work in a diving tank, and dazzling CGI pyrotechnics so everything appears reasonably seamless. The evacuation constitutes an Indiana Jones escapade with everybody braving a gauntlet of obstacles. Before the volcano erupts, West stages a romantic, underwater interlude. A guy proposes to his gal, and they dive into the depths to an open clam containing her wedding ring! An adrenalin-laced scene involving two parallel monorail coaches hurdling back to the resort is the most exciting scene. Passengers hurl themselves from one coach to another in a desperate bid to escape the doomed coach whose rail has been damaged. The Jeep automotive manufacturer gets a terrific plug as their vehicle survives one misfortune after another. Predictable but entertaining, "Skyfire" musters more than enough mayhem and revelations, especially Jack Harris' last-minute redemption.