CAT.8

France

Well, where to start ... First off, this is the most scientific inaccurate movie I've ever seen. Not only that, they are butchering it to a degree where it gets pretty hilarious. OK, to be fair we don't know what happens if we shoot high energy stuff into the Sun. But if that was the only thing ... Secondly, there are several goofs. For instance there is a scene where they show something on a computer monitor which was supposed to be their "software" and you shortly see a "play / pause / stop / ffwd ..." toolbar appearing in the bottom right of the monitor. Or when Beverly and Jack Hillcroft had the car accident because of an EMP discharge, the lights of the car were still on when they left it. Etc, etc, etc. There are lots of these little things. But still, even tho the movie has a pretty generic plot and an interpretation of science which is ridiculous, I still gave it a chance and it had something which kept me watching for that 3 hours. There was nothing wrong with the actors or their acting. Even the idea isn't that bad (at least of the first half), but just poorly realized. I mean we don't have that much "Sun doomsday movies", do we? The acting wasn't Oscar-worthy, but still good enough to get you connected to the characters, their story, their hopes, sorrows and happiness. Also the CGI was pretty good. I've seen worse in Hollywood movies (*cough* Hobbit *cough*). The biggest problem this movie has is clearly the realization of their plot and script and their interpretation of science. I think in the 70's and 80's this movie would be great, because today we have a far more advanced standard of knowledge, of our planet and the Sun, etc. So therefore the common audience today expects more accurate "fiction", so to say. Second, its length. It was obviously supposed to be a two-part movie. However, they offer it as one 3h movie in Amazon Prime. You can of course split it in two sessions, if you like. But I guess most viewers who quit after the first half didn't watch the second half anyway. So what ... I think the movie would have been better received if they spent more time carving out the script and maybe talking to college physics and geology students about how to realize that scenario so that it could work. Personally I think it was worth watching. I would recommend the movie to those who have already seen everything and don't know what to watch.

In addition to all the scientific malarkey discussed previously....the script is infantile, amateurish......can I be more direct. Where do they find these writers? The concept had a lot of potential as a real good suspense drama...but they had to put in lines like "it's really deep"...about the chasm. And the world is about to end but Mathew M and his partner scientist spend time re-connecting.....wow!!! An elite task force with automatic weapons is held off by two citizens with handguns. I know that they likely did not have the $ that a series like "24" has, but lord have mercy it doesn't take a rocket scientist to put together a realistic, mature screenplay. I could go on and on about the silliness of the script but I'm too ticked off about a potentially good story being wasted away by such infantile dialog and situations. Simply infantile!!

I watched this film yesterday with queasy disbelief. The simple fact is that nothing - but nothing - can fly between the earth and the sun in less than 8 minutes. That isn't susceptible to "as far as we know", either. It is the basis of one of the most tested, verified and successful scientific theories of all time. Even if a massive CME had been caused immediately by the incoming glittery beam of science-stuff, it could not have reached the earth in less than 16 minutes. And the sun is so big that like a big container ship, it doesn't exactly turn on a sixpence. By the time anything happened, the affected part of the sun would have turned away from the earth, and the CME would have missed. I would have had a lot more respect if there had been an "omigod" moment and a prediction that something nasty was coming in, say, 24 hours, and the film wouldn't have had to run for 24 hours to show it either. This is only one little point in a film I begrudge having spent the time to watch it. IMO it is a turd sandwich with really thin slices of bread either side. Saying, "hey, it's just SCIENCE FICTION, Negative Nancy" does not relieve the film of the responsibility to have at least one foot planted firmly in plausibility. They could have done this properly at no greater cost, with no impact on the story, and I would have given them kudos for having done so. No plausibility, no kudos. This film's nonsensical trashing of the scientific method does not render it any the more entertaining. It's just sloppy, rushed-looking and tedious. I shan't be watching it again.