Movie Notes: The Core

September 5th, 2008

= 3 stars

Starring Aaron Eckhart, Hilary Swank, Stanley Tucci
Directed by Jon Amiel

Synopsis

The earth’s core stops spinning, leading to a breakdown of the magnetic field, threatening to destroy humanity. A crack squad of scientists join with the military to drive straight down into the planet and save everyone.

The Good

• The Golden Gate bridge collapses, and all of San Francisco is blown into chaos by a rip in the magnetic field, exposing the area to microwaves from the sun.
• Aaron Eckart and Stanley Tucci keep things entertaining with alternatively grounded and over the top acting.
• Reminded me of several disaster movies of the seventies.

The Bad

• Extremely cliched. The apocalyptic disaster thing has been milked so often (Armageddon, Outbreak, Volcano, Deep Impact, The Day After Tomorrow) and everything you’d expect to happen (crew members picked off one by one, mission on the edge of failure, personal sacrifice, the government has other ideas, individual actions have large repercussions) does. The ending is a given.
• Logic holes everywhere. Deep in the earth, the crew still maintains radio contact. A crack squad of nobodies are given the responsibility to save the entire earth. A computer hacker performs miracles with a few taps on a keyboard.

Conclusion

A comparison with the far superior Sunshine is in order, because of a similar premise — the world is screwed and a very illogical mission put into action to save it. While Sunshine sent the heroes through space to drop nukes in the sun, The Core inverts everything to drop nukes at the Earth’s core. But Sunshine took everything extremely seriously, while The Core is generically Hollywood and emphasizes the usual “action” sensibility. It’s an amusing contrast.

So I enjoyed The Core way more than I should have. Despite the huge list of cliches and stupidity, I still enjoyed the ride until the end. I’d say it’s worth a rental — only because there’s an awful lot to laugh at.

IMDB: The Core
Wikipedia: The Core
Rotten Tomatoes: The Core 42%