Skyfire

Directed by Simon West, Skyfire follows several characters, including Hannah Quinlivan’s Meng Li and Jason Isaacs’ Jack Harris, as they’re forced to run for their lives after a volcano erupts on the island in which they reside and work. It’s the hoariest of setups that’s employed to initially passable yet increasingly tedious effect by West, as the filmmaker, armed with Wei Bu and Sidney King’s screenplay, delivers an erratically-paced disaster movie that’s been saddled with the most one-dimensional, one-note characters one could possibly envision – which ensures, ultimately, that the viewer’s efforts at working up a rooting interest in their ongoing survival and success fall hopelessly flat on a continuing basis. (Even Isaacs, cast as the picture’s quasi-villain, finds himself unable to make much of a positive impact, ultimately.) And although West has peppered the film with a small handful of compelling set-pieces, including an admittedly engrossing interlude wherein characters must jump from one speeding monorail to the next, Skyfire eventually progresses into an interminable second half that’s dominated by headache-inducing, far-from-convincing computer-generated special effects – with the nothing-but-mayhem vibe paving the way for a climactic stretch that’s hardly as exciting or engrossing as West has surely intended. The final result is a mostly worthless endeavor that squanders a familiar yet workable premise, which is a shame, certainly, given the potential afforded by the low-rent but watchable opening stretch.

*1/2 out of ****