Skyfire

As someone who suffers with Dyslexia to a degree, I am not a fan of subtitled films, they are just too much hard work for me, and I had no idea that most of this film would have subtitles. Yes I knew the film was Chinese, but the films trailer is very deceptively edited, and gives the impression that English is the main language, even if it is dubbed. But I thought well maybe I can enjoy the spectacle of the effects, sadly they are nothing new, you will have seen them all before, and done a lot better, the whole thing looks cheap most of the time. The story is dumb beyond belief, now I can watch and even enjoy a dumb film, I can enjoy Batman & Robin, which proves I have no shame, but this one is a whole new level of stupid. It wheels out every cliche under the sun and acts like it is doing something new and exciting, the action sequences are at best, run of the mill, and bring nothing to the table other than knowing you have seen them done before, and much better. There just isn't one saving grace about this film, it is just too stupid to be anything but total waste of time, unless watching dumb characters, doing dumb things just to drive the plot along is your thing, then maybe you might get some enjoyment from it, but I genuinely doubt it.

I love disaster films, love documentaries about volcanoes, and could really do with a fun distraction due to the recent unpleasantness, so this is a good one for me. Always love Jason Isaacs too, wish he was in it a bit more. Great to have decent effects after having watched a lot of disaster B movies whilst laughing recently. You are gripped all the way through and there is lots of peril, things crashing, blowing up and catching on fire which is what I want in a disaster film. I liked all the characters and they can act too which is nice. Basically great while you watch it, will happily watch again, but probably won't be popping in my mind for the next few weeks like the greatest films do. Solid disaster film. BTW it is in Chinese but you can switch the subtitles on, on Prime.

Warning: Lots of subtitles throughout (so turn on your Amazon prime subtitle settings). Its a Chinese co-production, which favours the Chinese language more often than English, so it does require a lot of subtitle-reading which I personally find tiring. Luckily the dialog is daft and short, so it doesn’t much matter what they say as the film doesn’t care either! The only characterisation is a fraught daughter/father relationship that no-one cares about as the characters are wafer thin anyway.The film appears to be a Dante's peak style movie but even after all these years, the Dante Peak's effects are far more realistic than the cheap ones in this. But then again, they would have had more time and less visual shots back in the day than they do these days - where everything gets rushed for half the budget it should be. Yes, the shot of the Jeep's tyres trying to drive through lava is in this version 2 too! The cinematography is good - I'll give it that - and the underwater marriage proposal and CGI is very well done, like a pixar animation. The effects are OK but not Hollywood standards. Distant CGI is too clear when it should be blurred to match its distant surroundings. Lots of rendered models such as the gangway, elevator and trains look too clean looking without any hint of practical effects. You can almost see a load of extras in the studio standing on green screen. In one 3 second explosion, the camera is tracking quickly to the right and yet the explosion on the mountain animates in the same place as if they couldn't be bothered with perspective shift. The only drama is a scene in which the elevated platform is being bombarded by burning rocks and everyone has to get back onto the overhead train. Although the scene does descend into further silliness after that. It's just popcorn nonsense with a hint of that Jurassic Park threat of not underestimating the power of nature. There is no humour, humanity or sarcasm, so don't expect a Geoff Goldblum character to appear and say: be sure to thank John for a nice weekend. Its £2 to buy and the premise seems to be along the lines of a rich guy saying to the young geologist ‘Don’t tell me building a resort next to a volcanoes is dangerous. I don’t have time to listen to your rant about your latest read-outs, there are millions tied up in the success of this place’ sort of incredulous nonsense.