Shown tonight under the title SOLAR STORM, this turned out to be a really good little movie. Sci-Fi is famous (infamous?) for taking really good story ideas and turning them into disappointing movies that can't deliver on their promise.
SOLAR STORM is primarily set in a pleasant small town in Washington State (played, of course, by Canadian locations) where a famous scientist and his wife, who's a science teacher, and his teenage stepson live in harmony until the Earth's magnetic poles start doing really strange things.
It seems that a big piece of a comet's tail hit the Earth in Alaska and did some serious damage. Then Dr. James Mayfield (played by Jack Coleman from the TV series "Heroes" discovers that the sun isn't setting in the place where it ought to.
It seems that the earth has shifted on its axis and the poles are in the process of reversing. The last time that happened was about a million years ago, and if it happens now there will be no living thing on the planet.
Director Paul Ziller has enough sense not to bite off more than he can chew. There are no detailed scenes of destruction in big cities with thousands of extras running in terror. He focuses the attention on the Mayfields and their town, and doesn't try to fake big budget special effects.
What's done is done pretty well. And the performers are strong enough to keep up our interest. Since my daughter was writing a paper for a college class I watched using headphones, and the sound effects are very effective.
Need I add that the authorities- including the President and Dr. Mayfield's father , General Mayfield (the two haven't spoken for five years)- want to ignore the call for alarm and calm the population that everything is all right? Would it surprise you that Mayfield's stepson is unhappy about his mother's remarriage (it's not mentioned specifically, but the boy's stepfather is about 24 years older than his wife)? This is not a work of original ideas. A little Armageddon, a touch of DEEP IMPACT, a possible solution to the problem that's borrowed from the very fine 1961 film THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE, and a rescue that comes courtesy of Jules Verne's JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH.
There's even a little bit of subtext about parent/child relationships and the issue of whether to blindly trust authority or to trust your instincts.
Good work, Sci-Fi Channel. Well done.
SOLAR STORM is primarily set in a pleasant small town in Washington State (played, of course, by Canadian locations) where a famous scientist and his wife, who's a science teacher, and his teenage stepson live in harmony until the Earth's magnetic poles start doing really strange things.
It seems that a big piece of a comet's tail hit the Earth in Alaska and did some serious damage. Then Dr. James Mayfield (played by Jack Coleman from the TV series "Heroes" discovers that the sun isn't setting in the place where it ought to.
It seems that the earth has shifted on its axis and the poles are in the process of reversing. The last time that happened was about a million years ago, and if it happens now there will be no living thing on the planet.
Director Paul Ziller has enough sense not to bite off more than he can chew. There are no detailed scenes of destruction in big cities with thousands of extras running in terror. He focuses the attention on the Mayfields and their town, and doesn't try to fake big budget special effects.
What's done is done pretty well. And the performers are strong enough to keep up our interest. Since my daughter was writing a paper for a college class I watched using headphones, and the sound effects are very effective.
Need I add that the authorities- including the President and Dr. Mayfield's father , General Mayfield (the two haven't spoken for five years)- want to ignore the call for alarm and calm the population that everything is all right? Would it surprise you that Mayfield's stepson is unhappy about his mother's remarriage (it's not mentioned specifically, but the boy's stepfather is about 24 years older than his wife)? This is not a work of original ideas. A little Armageddon, a touch of DEEP IMPACT, a possible solution to the problem that's borrowed from the very fine 1961 film THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE, and a rescue that comes courtesy of Jules Verne's JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH.
There's even a little bit of subtext about parent/child relationships and the issue of whether to blindly trust authority or to trust your instincts.
Good work, Sci-Fi Channel. Well done.