|
Reviewinator |
| Starring |
Aaron
Eckhart
Hilary
Swank |
| Director |
Jon
Amiel |
| Official Site |
Link |
| US Opening |
November 1, 2002
March 28, 2003 |
| Rated |
PG-13 |
| Genre |
Sci-Fi/Action |
| Trailer Cliché |
Hero walk, quick cut ending, exploding
landmarks, debris flying at the screen. |
| Explosions |
2 |
| Weapons |
Earthquake maker, electrical superstorms,
flying cables, collapsing bridges, lightning. |
| Voice Over |
Yes |
| "In a world where..." |
"It was a secret government
program..."
"Until something went wrong..." |
| Spoilage Factor |
40% |
| Geek Factor |
80% (geek, sci-fi topic, special effects) |
| See Trailer? |
Yes, especially if you saw the dreadful
original trailer. |
| See Movie? |
Can you suspend your disbelief
for 100 minutes? |
I started writing this review back in September. I didn't quite
finish in time, so I skipped the trailer review that week. Good thing. The
Core wasn't released last November as scheduled, but will be
released in March, reportedly to give it more time for the special
effects wizards to make things purty. I don't know how much better
the movie will be but the trailer certainly is better. The original
I reviewed looked like a B-movie gone Hollywood. My comments in the "See
the Trailer" category were "Only for a laugh." This
one is much better.
The conflict is man vs. nature. Man started creating earthquakes
on his own and now The core of the earth has stopped spinning. As
the main character tells us this will lead to "Everyone on earth...dead
in a year." He says it like it's somehow a bad thing. But wait!
There's a way to get the core spinning again. Blow up a 1000 megaton
nuclear warhead.
In sci-fi trailers you have to suspend disbelief. I just couldn't
get my brain around how a 1000 megaton nuclear explosion would get
the earth's core spinning again? Now, maybe if superman were to fly
around the earth's core really fast then it would start spinning
again, but there's no superman in this one.
The Core draws on two other successful action trailers for that
psychological bump to get you to the box office. The exploding Colosseum
with rocks flying toward the screen is reminiscent of Independence
Day when the aliens blew up the White House. I remember thinking, "Cool
they blew up the White House." This time I thought, "Oh,
that's like Independence Day." The curse of the unoriginal.
Next we get a collapsing Golden Gate Bridge and cables flying towards
someone's windshield. I'm reminded of the scenes in Twister with
tornadoes whipping debris towards the cars. Dear Special FX Wizards,
We realize you've mastered objects hurtling towards windshields.
Can we get to the next effect du jour?
 |
|
The
Wacky Hacker
|
A bothersome glitch throughout the trailer was the horrible sound
editing. Several times it was like a Speak 'n' Spell was doing the
lines.
Finally the star of the show appears: The Hacker. He's your typical
nerdling. Can't Hollywood break some stereotypes now and again? They
want him to handle the information flow, he responds "You want
me to hack the planet?" and like any stereotypical geek he says "I'm
gonna need star trek tapes and hot pockets." Of course, he might
be able to find the Star Trek episode where the earth's core stopped
spinning, and come up with a solution, rather than going all the
way down to the core.
There is a nice comedic interlude. The Military Man of the hero
squad asks the Eccentric Scientist what it would take to get his
legendary ship going in 3 months. He says jokingly, "$50 billion." The
G-Man replies, "Can you take a check?"
Of course, there's a quick cut closing with lots of explosions,
lightning and lava. Standard fare for your action trailer.
Conclusion on Trailer: Better than the original, but that's
not saying much. The scientific premise, and special effects are
worth the download.
Conclusion on Movie: Can you say Armageddon II: Underground.
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