Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: The Core

This is topic The Core in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Jacob Huber (Member # 1138) on 03-28-2003, 09:28 PM:

Screened this last night (Thurs. 3/27). From the first preview, I thought, "great, Armageddon meets Jules Verne." I was expecting a movie much similar to Armageddon, thankfully that's not what I got. Granted, this is definitely not a great film, but it is decent and watchable. Sure, many plot devices are very contrived, e.g., the ship "Virgil", the Unobtanium, etc., but looking past that, it is better than a many movies coming out as of late. The graphics are pretty good, and the sound could have been a bit better, plus the changeover cues were located about half-way down on the screen, which was pretty annoying for someone like me.

*POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT*

The acting is solid, and there is no love story, even though they could have easily put one in there at the end, when Aaron Eckhart and Hilary Swank's characters are huddled up together alone in the dark remnants of the ship. Thankfully they didn't. Also, at the end, when Rat spreads the information about Project Destini, the soundtrack is absolutely perfect, playing 30 Seconds to Mars's (Jared Leto's Band) "Echelon". There are probably dozens of physics errors, and one could consider many aspects as Deus Ex Machina, but it is still somewhat enjoyable.

6.5/10

BTW, many people have noticed that in the trailers, D.J. Qualls character says he either needs Star Trek or Kung Fu tapes along with hot pockets, depending on which cut you see. In the film, he ends up saying Xena. I also noticed that there were some conflicts in story between what was shown in the trailers, with Aaron Eckhart's character shown saying that Destini killed the planet while wearing his conference room clothes in the trailer, but in the film, he doesn't know about it until they are actually in the core. There were others, but they were minor and probably didn't change the outcome of the the movie, just scenes that ended up on the cutting room floor.

Posted by Don Bruechert (Member # 1538) on 03-30-2003, 02:29 PM:

Funny... I thought I heard Star Trek Tapes, but of course I was listening to the forbidden DTS disks (which Karen says they only changed out a song in the closing credits on) so who knows...

I liked this movie too. It's better than some of the stuff that has come out in a while.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 03-30-2003, 06:07 PM:

03/30/2003, Regal Valley River Cinema World 8, Eugene OR, 12:10PM, #4,

. Attendance only about 10. Flawless print, excellent presentation, and knockout sound. Even the rolling stock (of which there was too much) was clean as the proverbial whistle. [thumbsup]

to the staff. On a side note, they showed an ad for the latest Harry Potter video & DVD, and it's BY FAR the WORST-LOOKING piece of film you're ever likely to see on a big screen. It looked like a 2nd-generation VHS copy blown up.

I went in with low expectations and ended up favorably impressed. The Core may not be great, but it's good and it fulfills its mission of entertaining the audience. I didn't even recognize Delroy Lindo until his name appeared in the ending credits. My only nitpick is the visualization of the ship passing through the earth seemed, uh, I dunno, just "wrong". It was like a semi-psychedelic light show much of the time that didn't really seem realistic at all. Of course nobody knows what that SHOULD look like, so I'll give the filmmakers the benefit of the doubt. [thumbsup]

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 04-01-2003, 03:24 PM:

quote:
On a side note, they showed an ad for the latest Harry Potter video & DVD, and it's BY FAR the WORST-LOOKING piece of film you're ever likely to see on a big screen. It looked like a 2nd-generation VHS copy blown up.

Was that ad projected digitally, or was it a video transfer to film?

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 04-01-2003, 03:31 PM:

It was a video-to-film transfer, and it really looked bad. [eyes]

It was almost like a kinescope.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 04-01-2003, 04:01 PM:

Must really make you want to run out and buy the Harry Potter video. [Roll Eyes]