Writer: Daniel Gilboy (Screenplay)
Starring: Michael Pare, Leanne Khol Young, Patrick MacEachern, Cameron Gordon, Scott Roberts, Anna Barker
Plot: A helicopter pilot and an environmental scientist lead an exodus of survivors in a search for a safe haven after a catastrophic tectonic event causes the crust of the earth to break apart.
Runtime: 1 Hour 30 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Standard Basic SyFy Channel
Story: Global Meltdown starts when scientist Karen Cavanaugh (Young) is investigating a sudden number of sheep deaths, it escalates quickly to the idea of an underwater eruption which ha caused tidal waves that have destroyed the coastal cities. Karen in a small town must get the residents to safety with Mayor Wally (Roberts) helping and shady doomsday prepper Amos Cade (Pare) not wanting to share.
As the group travel to where they believe will be safe, they meet a conspiracy theorist while dealing with Cade’s enjoyment of the end of the world environment, can they make it before the world is destroyed?
Thoughts on Global Meltdown
Characters – Amos Cade is a doomsday prepper that has been preparing for the end of the world for years, now it might be happening and he couldn’t be happier. He becomes the human villain in the world which might not even have a future. Karen is the scientist that predicts what is going to happen, only she doesn’t seem to be able to make a logical decision along the way. Davis is a helicopter pilot that crash lands near the town, he has seen the destruction first hand, which helps him drive them to the next location. Mayor Wally agrees to join the escape plan which will see him need to try and lead the people of the town and making the brave choices.
Performances – The performances in this film are not helped by the basic story, because none of the actors get a chance to have an iconic moment in this film because everything just seems to fizzle out.
Story – The story follows a group of survivors who are looking for safety after a global destruction event happens and continues to happen as they run. We get the generic fitted characters including a human villain, the biggest problem with this story comes from the drastic change in tone between the characters because we get no timeline to how long they are on the run, it feels like it could be a couple of days, but the action make it feel like a couple of months. Sadly, we just don’t get enough happening through this film which just drags along.
Action/Sci-Fi – The action in the film is very basic, we get mostly explosions which never feel real and the occasion chase which again has no tension about it. The sci-fi elements of the film comes from the idea of the end of the world coming which doesn’t get played in the same way you imagine.
Settings – The settings used in the film is are the basic forest locations which just add little to the story.
Special Effects – The low budget effects are just not good but do take place in the background more often than not.
Scene of the Movie – Destruction scenes.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Not timeline.
Final Thoughts – This is a typical low budget syfy movie, it does the basics of any storytelling without hitting any of the marks required to reach the levels of even good.
Overall: Basic background movie.
Rating