Starring: Aaron Eckhart, Hilary Swank
Director: Joan Amiel
Rated: M15+
THE 19th century version of the story in The Core was Jules Verne’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth.
In the 20th century, it was filmed several times under its original title and with such variations as At the Earth’s Core.
Well, technology has come a long way even if storytelling remains much the same. The difference is that we enjoy conspiracy theories so, if nature is turning against the human race, we should not assume that it is nature which is malevolent. Rather, it is us ‘ and, as usual, the US military.
In the light of controversies about weapons of mass destruction, The Core is quite alarming. The Americans have countered threats by hostile powers to build bombs that, ignited underground, cause earthquakes, have built their own and created eruptions and lethal sonic booms, tilting the earth’s core and setting us on the road to the end of the world.
So far, so bad for us. But, as with Verne, a sturdy crew take a modified space vehicle down through the cracks in the earth’s plates. Well, perhaps the crew is not altogether sturdy and, as we might guess, most of them do not survive ‘ but get the chance to do some heroic deeds to save the planet.
Aaron Eckhart is the laid-back college professor whiz who has to lead the team. Hilary Swank is the tough navigator. Also along for the ride is the obnoxiously vain scientist, Stanley Tucci, his humble rival, Delroy Lindo and nice family man, Tcheky Karyo.
Of course, it is a film of special effects, last moment crises, the threat of nuclear havoc and staunch heroism. The scenes of destruction of the Colisseum and the Victor Emmanuel monument in Rome and the collapse of the jammed Golden Gate Bridge are alarmingly vivid.
The core is the set designer’s fantasy and seems an entirely unreal world despite so much of the dialogue ‘ which will baffle the non-physicists among us.
