Skyfire: Things go boom the same in any language, and the next Irwin Allen just may be Chinese

By Thom Ernst

Rating: B-plus

A real-estate mogul (Jason Isaacs) builds a luxury resort on a beatific island in the Pacific Rim volcanic belt. A leading scientist-for-hire declares the island's active volcano safe. No one listens to frantic alarms raised from a pesky young scientist (Hannah Quinlivan) with no marketable affiliation. 

It's a recipe for disaster. And it doesn't take long before hundreds of adventure-seeking tourists plunge into a mountain-sized meltdown.

Skyfire is the latest film to resurrect a genre that hasn't caught fire since the ‘70s. Once recognized as the disaster film, the genre now slips into the category of action/drama. 

Hannah Quinlivan can’t get anyone to believe her volcanic bad news in Skyfire.

Nobody's fooled. We know a disaster film when we see one. But the heyday of the genre when Irwin Allen and screenwriter Stirling Silliphant launched the blockbuster disaster film genre with The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and The Towering Inferno (1974) and then walked it back with lesser works like The Swarm (1978) and When Time Ran Out (1980). Attempts to relaunch the genre to its former glory tend to get lost in lousy CGI and routine storylines about fragmented families.

Even so, the disaster film hasn't lost its appeal, despite the genre's willingness to exploit people's misfortune to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. But was exploitation ever a real concern? Even well-intended films like The Impossible (2012), based on the 2004 tsunami, can't skimp on the deadly wave's spectacle.

But Hollywood forgot how to make the disaster film correctly, and by correctly, I mean by standards of which I like my disaster films. The format is simple: one spectacular disaster (anymore risks diluting the tension), a dozen central characters (racially, generationally, economically, and temperamentally diverse) out of which no more than five survive, and a cast of at least a dozen recognizable stars from both film and television. 

PROUDLY SUPPORTS ORIGINAL-CIN

There should be one scene of unprecedented heroism, one tragic death of a beloved character, one unexpected sacrifice, and plenty of random collateral carnage with lots of really cool ways for folks to die. 

Set pieces must include a dangerous and unstable walkway towering over a death plunging height. There must be a scene where someone implores a panicky crowd to remain calm as they rush into a malfunctioning elevator. And the lines, "Who made you leader? We don't have to listen to you!" must be uttered by the film's bully shortly before succumbing to an ironic death. 

And topping the disaster film's oeuvre is a gaudy poster bordered by a queue of the film's characters identified by their most recognizable archetype: The Racecar Driver, The Swinger, The Pilot, The Racist, The Hippy.

Skyfire doesn't check off everything on my list, or even most things, but it is still the closest disaster film to hit the mark since Earthquake’s Charlton Heston, and Poseidon’s Red Buttons were around to headline the cast. 

But Skyfire is not a Hollywood film. The most western aspect of the movie is the director's name, Simon West. West (Con Air, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider) is a Hollywood filmmaker, but Skyfire is full of eastern promise. It's a Chinese production filmed in Malaysia, with a cast almost exclusively (though not entirely) of Chinese and Taiwanese descent.

Director West makes excellent use of the film's set pieces, from runaway trams to spectacular underwater lava spills. Yes, Skyfire stretches believability to its breaking point. But with comic-book action so firmly planted in most every scene, any attempt at credibility would only be an unwelcome intrusion.

Titles like The Tower (2012) and Tidal Wave (2009) coming out of China, Japan, and Korea manage an overwhelming sense of awe unmatched by Hollywood's attempts. Skyfire doesn't quite meet the levels achieved by the best of these, fumbling with strenuous daytime-drama story-arcs and trite dialogue intended to be coy and playful. But unless you are fluent in Mandarin, it isn't easy to make strong-armed judgments on the film's dialogue or performances. Whether dubbed or subtitled, a lot can get lost in translation.

But do you know what doesn't get lost in translation? A blazing rock crashing through a glass observatory, or a steady flow of molten lava swallowing everyone in its path, or a jeep that jumps a street-size crevice while driving in reverse. That kind of action translates perfectly.

Click HERE to watch Bonnie Laufer’s Q&A with actor Jason Isaacs and director Simon West.

Skyfire is directed by Simon West as stars Hannah Quinlivan, Jason Isaacs and Xueqi Wang. Skyfire is released on VOD February 12, 2021