Tianhuo Island is a beautiful paradise. It almost makes people forget that it is located in the “Ring of Fire,” the world-famous Pacific Rim volcanic belt. When the volcano erupts, the fate of the people on the island is at stake.
“Skyfire” came out in December of 2019 as China’s first big-budget disaster film and ranked #1 at Box office on opening day. Additionally, the film is director Simon West’s (“Lara Croft: Tomb Raider,” “Con Air,” “The Expendables 2”) first divergence to China in his favorite realm, the action-adventure blockbuster. Reportedly planned to be the first film in a trilogy, two versions of “Skyfire” were filmed, one in English and one in Chinese, however, the production team believed acting was more natural in Chinese.
As might be predicted, the cinematography and special effects in the film inspire their appropriate share of “edge-of-the-seat” responses from the audience. Also, as can often be expected, the story suffers in the shadow of those special effects. In “Skyfire,” it is the writing and the acting that interfere with the hoped-for blockbuster experience. The plot is just too predictable, a combination of “Jaws” and “Jurassic World.” From the former film, Bu and King pull the “But it’s the biggest tourist weekend, we CAN’T close the beach!” and from the latter, an about-to-open theme park has been inauspiciously plunked down on a small island with an active volcano.
The actors, as is also often the case in these adventure films, are one-dimensional characters with a designated part to play in the unfolding drama. There are those who predict the coming danger, those who deny the danger, and lastly, those who realize the danger too late. Of course, the hero, or in this case, the heroine, is the one waving the red flag to warn of the danger.
Wang Xuequi as Li Wentao, the father of Li Meng, was the actor who was the most natural and multi-layered in his subtext. He lost his wife to the volcano and is determined to keep his daughter from the mountain’s inevitable clutch. Hannah Quinlan makes a beautiful, though willful heroine whose life has been spent to invent a machine that will accurately predict upcoming eruptions. Jason Isaacs is engagingly handsome and excited over the opening of his baby, the theme park at the foot of the volcano we expect from the get-go is destined to erupt in a real blockbuster way. Oh, and we are not disappointed.
Director Simon West says China is a huge film market just opening up now and the industry energy is refocusing in that direction. If that is the case, writers need to direct their energies towards action/adventure films with newer, different, more enticing plots to help keep future audiences on the edge of their seats. Think: creating the story of “Jaws” before there was ever a film by that name.
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