Skyfire

At first I thought I was somehow playing the wrong movie. Opening credits have an odd trip through space. Beautiful graphics just felt out of place. I don’t mind dubbed (partially dubbed in this case) films at all, I do wish though they were clearly marked, as they do require a bit more attention than I planned on giving to a movie I started at 11:30 at night. But I don’t sleep much anyways so I watched.Film starts with action packed eruption that ends in heartbreak, giving the back story on the theme park and setting up characters backstories as well.So a volcano resort? Thrill seekers sure, but honestly who’s thinking let’s take the family on vacation to visit a place with active volcanoes? I feel like the idea here was a bit flat. Who’s sinking millions if not billions into this state of the art hotel, tram system and heat resistant pod so people can go down into the volcano? No one, the insurance and liability there would be too much for any investor.Stunning architecture and buildings are throughout my stunning against the green foliage. Stunning given that it is mostly CG and the majority of the scenes were green screen. Nothing exceptional about the plot, it’s one of those you can guess what’s about to happen every step of the way.I found myself focusing so much on the dubbed and not dubbed dialogue (lips not matching words) that at times it was overshadowing the actual story unfolding. Normally no big deal if an entire film is dubbed but only parts of this are. I’m up late night a lot while my family sleeps so I also always watch everything with subtitles to keep from disturbing anyone- this I couldn’t. My subtitles popping over the the subtitles on screen for the dubbed sections was extremely distracting.Action packed good graphics and believable characters. Several highly unbelievable scenes, I’m sorry if your vehicles stuck in lava kiss your rear goodbye. The insane idea of winching yourself and a carload if others free is absurd.Maybe good for a rental, it is not something I’ll watch again.

Jason Isaacs at his best, despite there being a slight issue with building a theme park on an active volcano! I didn't think highly of the movie synopsis, but I will watch Jason Isaacs in anything. He is so talented and versatile. This time the Brit actor was doing Aussie. Well, this movie turned out to be a thriller, much better than I anticipated and less predictable than I imagined.My version was via payperview through verizon and some of the movie was in Chinese with subtitles, and I'm not sure why, because they would speak Chinese and then switch to English. I didn't get it, but the Subtitles were easy to read.

I really loved The Wandering Earth so I was excited to watch Skyfire, the first big budget disaster movie from China. Maybe my expectations were too high. The storyline was formulaic but the action sequences and special effects were pretty good. I liked the footage in the end titles showing how certain scenes were filmed. Sadly, that was what I found I liked most about the movie. We didn't really get to know the characters enough to be invested in their survival. Li Xiao Meng was the only character that was slightly developed. Hannah Quinlivan and Shawn Dou were the two actors that stood in the film. What really bothered me was the opening scene. For some reason, they decided to dub the mother's voice but the dubbing wasn't synced. I was watching it in Chinese and tried English to see if it would sync. Sadly, it was still out of sync. I thought it might've been my internet connection so I downloaded the movie to watch and it was still out of sync. :-( Opening a big budget movie with an out of sync dubbing seems like a very rookie decision. And... they misspelled "Director" in the opening credits! There was an interesting proposal scene in the movie, which I won't spoil, that I thought was unnecessary. Overall, it was an ok movie. I rented it at the sale price of $1.99 so I'm not upset. Had I rented it at the full price, I would've felt cheated.

I really Loved this Dvd I gotta say. Some if the Reviews, I have seen on here. Made me more "Should I?" . Yet, Glad I did. Great Film!

This is for the European version of the movie. Will poss. not play in USA players. Will need an all region player to view the movie. Overall a decent enough watch. Story line is basic. Resort is built on an island that has an active volcano. (Nothing bad will come of that idea right ?). Heroes need to survive to get to rescue chopper to get out. Of course along the way there is drama. Video itself is nice with clear vibrant colors. No special features. Dialogue is Chinese. Oddly enough the English subs are built in and display automatically on the screen. No way to turn off. Not a problem for me. There is some English spoken in the movie, that dialogue is not translated by the way. One audio track, (Chinese mandarin- No English audio track). 5.1Personally a nice movie to watch if you like oriental action movies and have nothing else is going on. Of course that's my opinion.

Fun Movie a stretch on theme but still a good movie to watch

This film is well done.It has good actors, characters, scenery, action, volcanic effects, people trying to escape, drama, etc, etc.The problem is that we have seen this stuff before, in other films.Still, I found it enjoyable to watch, because I like this type of film and because it was done very well.You may find it worth watching too.Note: I switched it to Chinese because the English subtitles appeared even with the English sound option; apparently, they are just there. The Chinese fits the mouth movements better than the English did. Note that I rented it; the discs may do things differently.

Effects could've been better, acting was ok and I didn't know when I rented it that it was a voice over movie. You could tell very much it was originally in a different language

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.

A big-budgeted Chinese disaster movie with a whole lot of action but little logic. Featuring the most basic of generic plots, we have an overly ambitious South African businessman (Jason Isaacs) who's had the wrecklessly nonsensical idea to build a luxurious theme park retreat on an unstable volcanic island. And of course, before the know-it-all geologists on the island get to say "I told you so", the volcano decides enough is enough and starts to blow its top!Despite the special effects not quite being as polished or convincing as a typical Hollywood blockbuster, there's some very decent action set pieces offered up here, albeit a bit over-the-top at times but thrilling all the same. The highlight being the island resorts' sky lift ride which takes spectators right to the top and inside the volcano itself and, unfortunately for the passengers, perfectly timed to coincide with the eruption. Then cue all the lava-dodging survival antics of a band of the islands inhabitants attempting to get themselves to safety, including an all-action, seemingly invincible, father and daughter duo with a fractured relationship. And what attempts at character development there are are tediously predictable in the way they play out and very much play second fiddle to the action. A special mention though to the bizarrely random but beautifully shot underwater marriage proposal. And upon the films' conclusion an inspiring message of hope dedicated to the "Warriors fighting fearlessly through the Covid-19 pandemic" followed by an upliftingly cheesy Chinese pop song played during the end credits...awww.Skyfire lag's behind the likes of 1997's Dante's Peak, which IMO is the best volcano themed disaster movie out there and of which it seems to take the most influence from. But it will definitely fill your fix for a no-nonsense, special-effects driven, man versus nature time-filler. The UK Blu-ray is completely bare-bones but is English friendly with removable English subtitles during the Mandarin language sections which make up around 90% of the films' duration.

Well, it's crazy mad and in Mandarin, and not in English, and nowhere did it state that....not anywhere. I bought two copies, one for us and another for somebody else...and this somebody else and his wife are totally allergic to subtitles...won't entertain them. However, it isn't all bad ..well except for the film now being 3 quid cheaper after purchase.It's a crazy, action packed, limited dialogue (thankfully) disaster fillum with mad amounts of preposterous cgi. Put your brain on hold, and just watch (and read the subtitles) and you'll get through it eventually. My wife really enjoyed it. I fell asleep frequently, and here's the weird thing, the other people that I got this for that hate and detest films with subtitles phoned to say they really enjoyed the film, in spite of the subtitles. And they said they weren't being polite! I have since watched it again, and it was okay. But I wouldn't go any further than that.But the lack of available details about the film language seems to me to not be an accidental omission. Personally I don't mind subtitles at all; I have tons of foreign language films. But I'd like to know what I'm buying beforehand.

Zum Inhalt von „Skyfire“ aus dem Jahr 2019 gibt es eigentlich nicht mehr zu sagen als bereits bei Amazon bei der „Produktbeschreibung des Herstellers“ ausgeführt ist.Action-Regisseur Simon West („Con Air“, „The Mechanic“, „The Expendables 2“) liefert hier einen astreinen „Vulkan-Action-Film“ ab, der sich meiner Ansicht nach weder hinter „Dante's Peak“ oder „Volcano“ noch „Jurassic World: Das gefallene Königreich“ verstecken braucht.Es gibt war einige Parallelen zu diesen genannten Filmen. U. a. erinnert der Beginn von „Skyfire“ ein wenig an „Dante's Peak“, ebenso wie die Flucht im Geländewagen vor den Lavaströmen, und der Themenpark sowie die Besichtigungstour der Insel mittels der Schwebebahn erinnert an „Jurassic World“ (wobei hier natürlich nicht Dinosaurier, sondern der Vulkan die touristische Attraktion ist). Nichtsdestotrotz finde ich die Story trotz etwas fehlender neuer Ideen sehr spannend umgesetzt.Obwohl es sich hier um eine chinesische Produktion handelt, empfand ich es als sehr angenehm, dass in „Skyfire“ meiner Ansicht nach weder das in chinesischen Filmen manchmal vorkommende Pathos noch ein „Overaction“ vorkommt. Für mich hätte es mit Jason Isaacs („Black Hawk Down“) gar keines westlichen Schauspieler gebraucht, um den Film auch für ein westliches Publikum interessant zu machen. Jason Isaacs spielt in seiner Nebenrolle als Betreiber der Hotelanlage bis zu seinem „feurigen“ Abgang nach knapp einer Stunde zumindest engagiert mit, was bei vielen (ehemaliger) Hollywood-Stars in vergleichbaren Filmen nicht immer behauptet werden kann.Der große Pluspunkt von „Skyfire“ ist für mich, dass, obwohl die Bild- (und auch Ton-) Qualität des Films im anamorphen Breitbildformat 2.39:1 hervorragend ist, gerade die Vulkan-CGI-Szenen meiner Ansicht nach sehr gut gelungen sind. Gerade eine sehr gute Bildqualität lässt die Schwächen mancher CGI-Aufnahmen deutlich erkennen. Die ab der 35. Minute beginnende „Vulkan-Action“ finde ich aber technisch wirklich sehr gut umgesetzt. Auch hier braucht „Skyfire“ den Vergleich mit den o. g. Filmen meiner Ansicht nach nicht zu scheuen.Insbesondere die Flucht im Geländewagen vor den heranrauschenden Lavamassen samt einschlagenden Lavakugeln fand ich sehr gelungen gemacht.Lediglich in nur ganz wenigen anderen Szenen als den „Vulkanszenen“ wie dem Hubschrauberabsturz ist CGI auszumachen (solche Szenen gelingen aber auch in vielen anderen Filmen nicht gut).Filmbezogene Extras gibt es auf der Blu-ray außer dem Trailer zum Film leider nicht. Im Abspann sind als „kleines“ Extra aber Ausschnitte aus einem Behind the Scenes und dem Musik-Video zum Film zu sehen. Schade, dass es nicht mehr an Extras gibt.Insgesamt nach meiner Bewertung 5 Sterne für „Skyfire“, einen sehr gut gemachten Actionfilm von Regisseur Simon West.Filmgeschmäcker sind bekanntlich verschieden, mir hat „Skyfire“ aber wirklich sehr gut gefallen.

Skyfire is a 2019 Chinese disaster action film directed by Simon West and written by Wei Bu and Sidney King. It stars Wang Xueqi, Hannah Quinlivan, Shawn Dou, and Jason Isaacs.A Chinese answer to volcano, twister, and most other disaster movie from the US, only done with a bit more heart, from the director best known for Con Air and Expendables 2 and a thoroughly enjoyable experience with a nod to the most underrated and hard working actor Mr Jason Isaacs.