"The Core" asks a lot from it's audience as far as suspension of disbelief goes. Supposedly, the doomsday scenario presented in the film is somewhat possible. Fine. The various technology used in an attempt to fix the problem doesn't even exist yet, but I'll accept all of it, because human imagination is limitless, and if we can think it, then it might actually exist one day. The fact that the people in this movie build technology that complex in under three months is very far-fetched, but I'll go with it. But eventually, it gets to be too much. At a certain point in the film, I couldn't take it anymore, and I had to laugh, as did several members of the audience who I shared the theater with.
I wanted this movie to be great, and something different. I wanted a thinking man's disaster movie. Instead of a natural disaster like an earthquake, tornado, or volcano, and instead of something astronomical, like a meteor crashing to earth, "The Core" was about something a lot more complex, and that was cool. Unfortunately, when all is said and done, it comes off as just another disaster movie, which would be fine, but even as far as disaster movies go, "The Core" isn't all that great. In fact, it's pretty bad, which isn't to say that it's not entertaining, because it is... mostly because of the acting, as well as the few times the movie actually went into unique territory. And it's always cool when they show some of the disasters.
There are a few actors in Hollywood who completely blow me away whenever they're on the screen. I'm not talking about the obvious ones, like Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Denzel Washington, and the rest of the big guns. In fact, I'll go so far as to say that the actors I'm talking about are better, because when I see them act, to me, they're not acting, they ARE the characters. I'm talking about Don Cheadle, Paul Giamatti, and the leading actress in this film, Hilary Swank. I've seen her in only three other movies ("Boys Don't Cry," which earned her a well deserved Oscar for Best Actress, "The Gift," and "Insomnia"), and she never ceases to amaze me with her acting ability. Like Don Cheadle and Paul Giamatti, her acting looks almost effortless. Every move, every line of dialogue, she seems perfectly natural. Like I said, it doesn't even look like acting. She's awesome.
The cast surrounding her is pretty damn good, too. Aaron Eckhart, the male lead, is another great actor. Most of you probably saw him as the male lead in "Erin Brockovich," he was the biker guy. He was also in "Your Friends and Neighbors" and "In the Company of Men," and he was great in those movies, too. I don't know if this movie will make Aaron Eckhart a star, but he's got the potential. Delroy Lindo does a great job, too, as does Stanley Tucci. DJ Squalls lends a helping hand, and though he's obviously being typecast, he's good here in a movie that, for once, isn't a vulgar comedy aimed at the MTV crowd.
MTV SUCKS!!! PLAY SOME MUSIC VIDEOS, DAMMIT!!! Please, for the love of God, no more Road Rules, no more The Real World, no more Cribs, no more TRL (where teenage idiots scream throughout the video, which they don't show in their entirety anyway), no more interviews with Fred Durst (I'm sure you're all "in agreeance" with me when I say that Mr. Durst isn't one of our great thinkers), no more anything but music videos. Please. PLEASE!!!!!
"The Core" was directed by Jon Amiel ("Entrapment," "The Man Who Knew Too Little," and "Copycat," among others) and written by Cooper Layne (debut) & John Rogers ("American Outlaws"). The script seemed to have just enough research to make the premise at least a little bit believable, but that was all thrown out the window when the terranauts started going through the earth. As for how the movie was directed, it seemed to be pretty good, though it probably didn't have to be that long. And there probably shoulda been more destruction shown. Just to add to the "wow" factor, ya know?
A lotta people have been saying that the effects look cheesy. I don't think they were all that bad. Well, there was one really bad thing, and it wasn't even a complicated effect. In the movie, there's this huge place where the U.S. government housed a device called "Destiny." The entire place was obviously created digitally, but it seemed like it was done with 3D Studio Max, which is 3D animation software that's great for flying logos, and stuff like that, but not for computer animation for movies. I'm not saying that 3D Studio Max was used, I'm only saying that it LOOKED like 3D Studio Max. I don't know what it was, but it definitely wasn't Maya, the Oscar-winning software from Alias|Wavefront that's basically the industry standard for digital effects in movies nowadays.
Did that come off like a commercial or what?
I guess I would say that "The Core" was a disappointment. I didn't expect something great, but I expected something deeper than a typical disaster movie. But no such luck. On the plus side, though, it really did have some awesome acting, and I was entertained during most of the movie. I can't really complain too much, ya know?
Scale of 1-10: 7