The Core
Dir: Jon Amiel
2003
***
It seems that most people either see Jon Amiel's 2003 sci-fi action film The Core as a complete disaster or as a guilty pleasure. I'm leaning towards guilty pleasure but then again, why should I feel guilty? First and foremost, this is a science-fiction film. It may have some scientific truth to it here and there but by and large, it is complete fantasy. To take it seriously would be silly. Large scale disaster films are silly anyway, what's not to love about a Space Shuttle landing in Los Angeles' famous storm drain, seeing the Golden Gate Bridge melt, watching Rome's famous Colosseum explode or witnessing every pigeon in London fall dead from the sky. That's my kind of nonsense. Sadly, the CGI is pretty damn poor, shocking that it isn't as good as that featured in films made 10 years prior. However, many of those films didn't quite have the seriousness that The Core has. There is no whooping and cheering, the stunts are ridiculous and somehow aren't unbelievable. There are no obvious villains, the sudo-science doesn't seem that far fetched (well, not until they go to the Core anyway) and when when someone dies they don't forget about it within seconds, they remain sad and bereft. The character development isn't amazing but it is way above average for a film in this genre. The ensemble cast is pretty impressive too, each character is beneficial too and not just there to add to the body count. The silly science and the dodgy effects are a little distracting I admit, particularly towards the end of the film but as colour by numbers sci-fi action 'Let's save the World' adventures go, it's really not that bad.