When a massive earthquake rocks the city of Los Angeles, Emergency Management department head Mike Roark (Jones) returns from his vacation to help with the city’s response. After geologist Dr. Amy Barnes (Heche) warns that a volcano may be forming in sewer tunnels, another severe earthquake unleashes the lava flowing underfoot, threatening to destroy the whole city. As the fiery molten rock runs through the streets, Roark and Barnes must figure out how to divert it.
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It’s funny the way Hollywood works. Supposedly, each studio works on its films independently of the others, but, every so often, dueling movies arrive on the scene. Whether it’s an asteroid (Deep Impact, Armageddon), ants (Antz, A Bug’s Life), recording someone’s life (The Truman Show, EdTV) and more. When it came to volcanoes, there were two contenders: Dante’s Peak; – and this film, Volcano. Picking one at random, I decided to give this film a try first. Would it bring the “wow,” or should I hope the other film is better?
Tommy Lee Jones heads up a solid cast in Volcano. As head of the O.E.M. (basically the department that takes over if there’s a disaster in Los Angeles), he’s right in the middle of this whole scenario. While there is a bit of a love interest thing going on with geologist Anne Heche (who provides some brief comic relief along with Jones’ second-in-command, Don Cheadle), and a bit of a dad-daughter bond with Gaby Hoffmann, the film is mainly about the action. While the characters are personable (and also include familiar face Keith David), they spend most of their movie reacting to the crazy circumstances.
And what crazy circumstances they are! Volcano eases viewers into a rather idyllic version of Los Angeles (no gang violence for example – just some rather polite looting when things start going nuts), where mild earthquakes are common (which is probably true-to-life). But things start getting crazier, and after the viewer is lulled into a sense of calm – and most of the major characters are introduced – things start picking up fast. From the first manhole covering blowing off, things stay crazy and hectic. There is a brief pause – and some might think the movie might be ending – when they achieve a victory, but after letting the viewer catch their breath a moment, the story takes off running again, in a way that most will have seen coming from a mile off.
The special effects in Volcano are still pretty darn good. While they may sometimes not look quite up to the CGI effects of today, viewers will still wonder how they were able to achieve some of them, and therefore will go along with them. Most are pretty spectacular, and none will really detract from the viewer’s enjoyment of the film.
The biggest problem with Volcano doesn’t lie with its actors or its overall story. It lies with trying to up the excitement for the viewers. There are several sequences where the characters are basically face-to-face with the lava. But, if this stuff is as hot as they keep saying (melting the streets, etc.), wouldn’t these characters be on fire just be being in close proximity to this stuff? It makes plastic melt at one point, then doesn’t burn the clothing of the characters? It makes the movie seem less believable.
Thankfully, that’s the only real drawback to this film. With a pretty solid cast and an entertaining storyline, Volcano is a fun popcorn flick. True, the film sometimes tries to go for a deeper message (and fails), but for the most part it’s just an action flick – only instead of the hero facing off against a man-made villain, lava is their foe. Maybe a bit outlandish, but still fun to watch.
