Ho-hum. Another SciFi Channel production and another direly tedious, badly acted, poorly produced effort with sub-standard effects and story. Who woulda guessed, huh? The SciFi Channel seem to think that getting the crews' four year old kids in as science advisers is a good idea. Hence we have the laughable technobabble on display here that makes Star Trek look like science fact.

The Earth is rebelling against us, since we've poisoned it with radiation and chemical pollutants etc. How very Gaia-like. Also how terribly intellect-insulting. I'm not sure what is worse. The fact that they hope we'll swallow this garbage or the decision to try to send an eco-message to the viewers (albeit only in passing).

Clearly no one even proof-read the script or they'd have noticed the glaring gaff involved in solving the problem of the erupting Earth. You see, having poisoned the world with radiation and such, the only solution to save the planet is to detonate nuclear warheads, thereby adding more radiation. It really isn't just me that noticed this ridiculously counter-intuitive nonsense? Right? Other intelligence insulting details include the apparently limitless diving abilities of nuclear ballistic submarines and the attendant ability of their torpedoes to likewise survive the crushing pressure at the tremendous depths of ocean trenches.

My favourite nonsense though, was the scene where a guy gets dripped on by molten lava and later, in hospital, we're told that he only has "superficial burns".....

All in all this was complete rubbish, like most SciFi productions and is best avoided by all.

Magma:Volcanic Disaster was an example of a movie that was pretty poor overall, but on the other hand, it could have been a lot worse. What saved it, surprisingly, was the acting. Xander Berkeley gives a very solid lead performance and Amy Jo Johnson is decent too. Because of their performances, their characters manage to be somewhat likable. All the other characters though aren't so fortunate. The cast do do their best, but the characters are poorly written, underdeveloped and I think clichéd too. The script with a lot of cheesy and banal moments is weak, the direction is risible and the sound effects are not that well-incorporated and some feel recycled. What really let Magma:Volcanic Disaster down particularly were the story and effects. I did like the concept to start with, even if it screamed of been here, done that, but the story itself is predictable, sluggishly paced and hampered by subplots that weren't necessary to the development but were there anyway. The effects are pretty amateurish and fake, and they don't do much to add to the atmosphere, which I don't think there's enough of. I also think some tighter editing wouldn't have gone amiss either. Overall, not a complete waste but not something I would see again willingly. 3/10 Bethany Cox

MAGMA: VOLCANIC DISASTER is a low key disaster film of the 2000s, barely remembered by anybody a decade later. It stars the constantly underrated Xander Berkeley, an actor I've been a fan of ever since I saw him in TERMINATOR 2, playing a vulcanologist who warns of the imminent eruption of volcanoes around the world. What follows is a by-the-numbers thriller full of insipid performances from everyone who isn't Berkeley, alongside poor scripting and the usual gamut of terrible and cheesy CGI effects. It's a shame that Berkeley's protagonist is so dull here because he alone carries the film and is the only worthwhile thing in it.