Crack in the World

Poster tagline: THANK GOD IT’S ONLY A MOTION PICTURE! SCIENCE MISCALCULATES... UNDERGROUND ATOM BOMB EXPLODES EARTH’S CORE... AND THE WORLD TOTTERS ON THE BRINK OF DESTRUCTION! Not as silly as the synopsis might make it seem. Scientists are trying to get at the Earth's core to harness its energy, but its edge is so hard and tough that even diamond drill bits can't do anything, so they use the power of an atomic bomb to trigger an unintended effect, a rift in the Earth's crust that spreads across the globe. Of course, if you think about it a bit and don't have Emmerich's mindset, it’s scientific and logical nonsense that cannot be accepted even turning a blind eye. This is a sci-fi fairytale with a likeable narrative, a very good production design, and decent special effects, which was pigeonholed in the catastrophe genre that was becoming popular then and would peak in the 1970s. Moreover, the performances are superb, including the necessary eye-candy in the form of the charming Janette Scott, who’s the anchor as the centre of a love triangle with a dying scientist and husband – an emotionally tormented wife – and a doubt-filled fellow scientist and unwilling saviour of the world. The effects aren’t many, they take up about 5 minutes of the total runtime, but when they do happen – the atomic and magmatic eruptions – they are very spectacular and impressive, and the descent into the volcano is perfect. Leaving aside the naive premise, the otherwise quite intelligent script relies mainly on the gradual building of tension and escalates excellently in the end, although a viewer tuned to a more realistic-sounding tune might say that it was too much, but not for me, I loved it. (03/06/2013)