Magma: Volcanic Disaster (2006)

People are voting emotionally.

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

The movie does not start well. The writing, acting and sound are all about as bad as it gets, suggesting the entire movie may end up being a disaster. Not true. But the long-dormant Iceland volcano with an unpronounceable name starting with "Troll" does erupt suddenly and quickly, with terrible consequences for the people we didn't likely enjoy watching.University geology professor Dr. Peter Shepherd is teaching a class. After the bell rings, geochemistry graduate student Bree says she wants to join him on an expedition to another Iceland volcano. She knows he lost the one person who would know chemistry, and despite his protests, she perseveres and ends up on the team, which includes Kai, Christopher (there is a C.J. in the credits, so I guess that's him), Jacques, and others whose names I don't remember. Bree is too perky and enthusiastic to be believable as an intelligent scientist, but that will change later.Once again, a long-dormant Iceland volcano comes back to life way too quickly, but this time, rescuers arrive in time. Something serious is going on. In the first of many newscasts with ominous footage and an anchor lacking in personality (who we don't see), we learn thousands died. One theory for these volcanoes and others is natural gas drilling in the area. But many more of the world's best-known volcanoes are erupting suddenly and causing catastrophic damage. Surely this is not a man-made phenomenon.Well, maybe it is. Another theory is that the sum of all human activity has caused something to happen in Earth's core, and unless it is stopped, all life on Earth could vanish.Peter visits his former mentor Oskar, a creepy bald man in a wheelchair who has an accent and has quit the U.S. Geological Survey because his boss and former student Dr. Kincaid is impossible to deal with. Oskar has predicted Fuji will erupt next and he wants to be there. Yes, he knows the risks if Fuji behaves like the other volcanoes did. And from the sound of the next newscast we hear, much of Japan is gone. No, we only see the mountain blow its top and the nearby results.Peter's ex Natalie works at Yellowstone, where Old Faithful is failing to live up to its name. Could this be connected? Shepherd and Bree talk about his relationship, and later Peter and his wife have a talk.Peter and Bree appear before a government committee and present the far-fetched theory. Kincaid is not impressed and says only that volcanoes behave a certain way and give warnings, unlike the ones that have recently erupted. As Kiliminjaro and others come to life causing catastrophic destruction (Rome is essentially gone), Kincaid and those who doubted have to admit something must be done. By the way, we don't see these other events except for some news footage.Peter and his team go to Ecuador to study what can be done to predict and deal with the eruptions. Somehow they end up in Colombia at a copper mine guarded by a man with a gun who speaks no English. Weird things have happened there. Once they are in the mine, the team gathers the information they need, and then we see more excitement. This time the terrifying events last a while and we get some suspense. One question: if this tunnel is not on a map, why does it have electric lights? Did our team put them there? I doubt it.It is time to take action. Peter has enough information to go to the U.S. Navy. Other nations join in the fight. The President of the United States addresses the nation. Though he is no Kiefer Sutherland, he does a good job. But could it be too late? And is Natalie in danger?This is on the level of a TV-movie, but not as much of a disaster as some disaster movies. The actors playing Peter and Bree are actually pretty good, once Bree is no longer perky (or perhaps you can count her perky behavior as good acting). The writing is about on the same level as the typical movie of this type, but the last half-hour or so is quite exciting. Some actors with only a few lines seem like they are sitting around the table reading their lines for the first time.The visual effects are competently done but not spectacular. In most scenes we see only the minimum necessary to communicate what is happening, but toward the end we get a little more detail. Violence is not graphic (unless you count people catching on fire, but even then you can't really see anything) but several people surely die. In one case we are told the person died. This isn't bad enough to be good, but it's good enough not to be bad.

MAGMA: VOLCANIC DISASTER is a low key disaster film of the 2000s, barely remembered by anybody a decade later. It stars the constantly underrated Xander Berkeley, an actor I've been a fan of ever since I saw him in TERMINATOR 2, playing a vulcanologist who warns of the imminent eruption of volcanoes around the world. What follows is a by-the-numbers thriller full of insipid performances from everyone who isn't Berkeley, alongside poor scripting and the usual gamut of terrible and cheesy CGI effects. It's a shame that Berkeley's protagonist is so dull here because he alone carries the film and is the only worthwhile thing in it.

Has to be said that for a volcano disaster movie it was pretty pants. I mean no matter how much of a hurry you are your always going to be careful of where you put your foot aren't you... I mean when that chap accidentally 'steps' in the lava at the start...? Oh and 'i think there is lava inside that mine, why don't we go and have a look' seems to spell disaster...Plus you don't see any famous landmarks being destroyed, you just hear about them...? Oh no most of Rome's been destroyed...? Yeah well lets see? This could have been a brilliant film... Especially if they switched a couple of characters about and gave the lass that played Michelle in 24 more screen time...My biggest moan is when the people are trapped between the burning woods and lava in the Yellowstone national park. They just stand there and let themselves be melted by he lava... *beep* that, id make a run through the burning trees! So many things disappointed me about this film... Oh well... Lets hope the next volcano disaster movies are better.Watching Terror Peak and Volcano in New York soon... Fingers crossed... So far my fav out of this one, Volcano (LA), Dantes Peak and The Volcano Disaster is The Volcano Disaster... A very underrated movie which i love...

This seemed like a typical Sci-Fi channel disaster movie that would be 4 hours over two nights. I didn't believe the TV Guide listing. But in the last 5-10 minutes, it wrapped up everything at warp speed. The end had more senseless death than I imagined. It was like a bad episode of '24' or like 'Atomic Train'. The only reason I completed watching was for two of my favorite beautiful actresses, Reiko Aylesworth ('24') and Amy Jo Johnson ('Power Rangers', 'Felicity'). Not bad clap-trap for a Friday night of nothing to do, but don't go out of your way for it. I am usually up for a good made-for-TV disaster, but this did not satisfy my excitement for world destruction. But then again, it was better than '10.5'. Test patterns are better than '10.5'.