Solar Attack

I saw this last night and kept watching as there was nothing else on that was better. The premise of the movie was cool. Big solar storm ignites the atmosphere and has the potential of instantly wiping out life on Earth. However, the dialogue in the movie was horrible. The script was lacking emotion and intensity. The dialogue could have been so much better. The acting was alright given the bad dialogue. Louis Gosset, Jr. plays the president but has a small role in the movie overall. The score was horrible. The movie needed more intense music and more emotive dialogue. This movie lacked in intensity and would have benefited greatly from it. Unfortunately, the movie was pretty much on par with most small budget films made in Canada.

Solar Strike aka Solar Attack is a Disaster movie which was made straight for TV, if I am not mistaken. And you immediately can tell that the budget was not all too big to make this film. This clearly reveals when it comes to visuals and dialogues, which can be very cheesy at times. I liked Mark Dacascos in this role though and even if the film is pretty much generic, it was not as bad as some other ratings imply. If you don't take things too serious you might even enjoy this one. Bill Lake in his role as the Russian captain was even fun to watch. Louis Gossett Jr. (some of you might remember him in his role as Jerry from the gorgeous Enemy Mine) as the president of the United States? Well, in movies everything is possible. You might forget this movie soon after you have seen it, but that doesn't mean it is painful to watch or something. If you just want to kill some time by watching a disaster movie, there are way better ones. But also way worse ones.

Solar Attack is about a large coronal mass ejection (CME) from the sun that threatens to ignite the atmosphere and kill everyone. The president must try and make the right decision and he only has one chance. The scientists and advisors are split, but the president errs on the side of caution and authorizes some dangerous operations. While this film deals with a lesser known extinction level event, the science is still dubious as presented. For the most part, the performances aren't convincing and seems rushed. I think this has more to do with the directing rather than the acting. Dialog is common with little snap. I doubt that even big name actors could have pulled this out of the C+ range. Special effects were nonspecific, general, and unrealistic.

I will give you two reasons for watching this sci-fi potboiler about a solar burst that threatens to wipe out all life on our planet: martial artist Mark Dascascos as a disgraced scientist who figures out how to save the Earth and Lou Gossett Jr. as a black (!) U.S. president who decides to go along with Dascascos' seemingly harebrained plan. I will watch anything with Dascacos, and being a Baby Boomer, I will always give Mr. Gossett the benefit of the doubt (IRON EAGLE, anyone?). The rest of this is pure crap. Terrible special effects, terrible dialog and way too much talking and standing around. Dascascos does not get to kick much behind in this one. So if you want to see Dascascos in action, watch the French thriller BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF.

Although I had to suspend disbelief a lot in this, it was worth it because the underlying story has heart and excitement. The production values are low and the scientific merit is questionable at best; but the screenplay is impressively ambitious in scope. And although the budget was extremely limited, some of submarine, fighter plane, and nuclear CGI effects came off quite well.

This definitely kept me entertained and I think it's quite underrated. Fans of sci-fi disaster films like Armageddon will enjoy this if they can see past the extreme lack of polish, into the endearing earnestness and ambition that lies beneath.