I love old sci-fi movies,
the wacky designs in them are usually just a feast for the eyes. Not
only that but you either get something so absurd that it turns out to
be hilariously entertaining or every now and then you actually see a
movie that's quite current in themes even today. This was a bit of
both. The Americans have invented a new atomic submarine, called
Seaview, and during it's first test voyage the Van Allen radiation
belt around the Earth catches fire. As the Earth is slowly turning to
a barbecue grill and the extinction of the whole human race seems
imminent the best scientists around the world seem clueless as how
to prevent this. But fear not as the two brightest scientists are on
board the Seaview and they have a plan to blow up the Van Allen belt
with an atomic rocket. As most of the other scientists seem to
disagree with them as they think it would be wiser to just wait for
it to burn out, the tensions rise between them and even amongst the
crew of Seaview. First the parts that worked even today. Michael
Schiffer must have watched this movie for inspiration to the
screenplay of Crimson Tide (1995) as there are so many similarities to them, even though the plot
around them is quite different. When you have a group of people
inside a submarine with no connection to the outside world and the
Admiral has a plan that could either save the planet or destroy it,
it of course creates conflicts between the crew. And it surely
doesn't help that the United Nations have sent a submarine to destroy
the Seaview before it can shoot it's rocket. Also the fact that the
world is about to end and there's no guarantee that the crazy plan
will work the crew needs to figure out how to spend the last moments
of their lives, with their loved ones or with a seemingly crazy plan
in hopes to stop it. Another thing that worked very well were the
problems created between science and religion. So there's quite a few
things that worked even today as an interesting and thought provoking
movie.
But as it's an old sci-fi
movie there's plenty of that absurd stuff in there as well. Of course
the whole idea of a ring of fire around the Earth was just ridiculous
and the stuff one might find deep at the bottom of the sea turned out
to be a hilarious surprise. So there are quite a few of those
ridiculous moments as well. Then again they kind of fit the pace of
the movie, once the “smart” stuff turned into a stall it went to
the “funny” stuff to keep up the interest. The cast were fairly
ok, nothing to rave about but surely nothing to complain about
either. This movie looked surprisingly good and the restored print on
the DVD was a feast for the eyes. Sure some of the effects were bad
in modern standards, but still most of the underwater shots looked
amazing. A movie well worth watching, especially if you're into old
sci-fi.
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