Cinema Review: The Core (From Barry And District News)

Cinema Review: The Core

THERE'S nothing like a good disaster movie to start off the summer blockbuster season. While some have been turkeys, others have been pure class. The Core however, is er...The Core!

When a series of bizarre disasters takes place, like space shuttles falling from the sky and birds going nuts, scientists are baffled. But then, they learn the truth - the earth's core has stopped spinning, which would result in the entire planet's life becoming extinct.

In other words, if you swap the earth's core for an asteroid, you have Armageddon. And what a complete rip off it is. Not only does it try to mimic its tone, The Core steals some of Armageddon's scenes so blatantly that you expect Bruckheimer and Bay to file a court case against the makers.

The thing is, despite being a critical failure, I found Armageddon to be pure class. Fair enough, it was far from being fine art, but it never took itself seriously. But The Core, is just plain and simply empty.

It should have started with a bang. It started with some bloke in an office. There's hardly anything spectacular because the majority of the film takes place in the ship. If the makers can only blame lack of money for cutting down on spectacular stuff, then it shouldn't have been attempted. It's a nice idea, just poorly made.

Ameil should have sat down and made a list of what his audience would have wanted to see. I wanted spectacular computer generated imagery along with sharp humour and emotion. Instead, I ended up with empty clichs.