Film Review: Meteor Apocalypse (2010)

SYNOPSIS:

The end is here, but that’s only the beginning in this disaster thriller set in a not-too-distant future. When an enormous meteor breaks through the Earth’s atmosphere, the whole world shares a similarly terrifying fate. With billions of lives hanging in the balance — and the whereabouts of one man’s family up in the air — is there any hope for humankind’s survival?

REVIEW:

Directed by: Micho Rutare
Written by: Micho Rutare and Brian Brinkman
Starring: Joe Lando, Claudia Christian, Cooper Harris, Madison McLaughlin

Meteor showers are a delightful event that fans of astronomy look forward to. The delightful meteors burn through the sky, providing a show of bright lights and natural beauty. However, meteors can also be a deadly problem, which is shown in Micho Rutare’s “Meteor Apocalypse.” When NASA officials decide to divert a meteor from hitting Earth’s surface, the debris from the giant meteor showers down on the Earth, causing chaos in the southwest corner of the United States.

David Dematti(Joe Lando) is consumed by his work, and even turns down his wife’s request to go to church in the morning. His wife, Kate(Claudia Christian), tends to the needs of their only teenage daughter, Alison(Madison McLaughlin), as her father rarely helps her with even her school project on her solar system. When the family goes to bed, a giant rumble awakens Alison and she begs her parents to check out what is going on.

She does research online, finding out that what was felt was not an earthquake, and urges her father to come look. He ignores her, and then gets a phone call from one of his coworkers, Sam(Richard Shaluly). Saying he needs to go into work after hours, he leaves the home and finds his coworker writhing on the ground in pain. He looks into the office in which he is working, and finds a glass on the ground in which he realizes that the water that Sam had been drinking had been contaminated.

David immediately calls Kate, telling to not let Alison drink the water, but he is too late hearing Alison getting sick in the background. His instincts of a husband and father kick in, as he rushes to be reunited. Unfortunately, he is unsuccessful as all the residents of his neighborhood get evacuated into a safer location. David is forced away from the residents, as they are all deemed contaminated, and promises himself that he will do whatever it takes to be reunited with his family.

While David is on his journey to find his wife and daughter, he comes upon a woman who is diseased by the deadly water that was contaminated by the meteor. He gives her an antidote, and she passes out. She awakens in his car, and is frightened from the strange man that saved her. Lynn Leigh(Cooper Harris) then succumbs to being saved by David, and explains to him how his life has been not well in the love department. David and Lynn become a team, and travel amongst Las Vegas and Los Angeles in search of David’s family. David must also make a choice to use his only cure on this virus on his daughter or on his new accomplice, Lynn.

Amongst their adventure in the deserts, there are plot holes that did not make sense. For example, during a night of sleeping, David awakens to having two bottled waters magically appear to his side. Lynn questions him to where they came from, and David just shrugs it off not knowing where they came from. This part really didn’t make sense to me, and took away from my credibility towards the plot. Also, the meteors were animated through CGI, along with CGI fire that attacked the humans being hunted by the debris.

Lynn and David do have an intimate moment when Lynn thinks that the reason she was saved because they were meant to be together, but David quickly blows her off being faithful to his vows. Afterwards, Lynn dies from the effect of the meteor debris in the drink she had at the gas station she visited, and David takes the antidote to find his wife and daughter in Los Angeles.

There are many natural disaster movies out there dealing with what happens when nature turns against us, and Rutare’s “Meteor Apocalypse” is no stranger to this ploy. With dramatic car chases and a family being reunited through the act of compassion, the film draws the viewer in but loses the viewer in slow parts with unnecessary dialogue. I felt the best part of the movie was the beautiful shots of the southwest United States, but I was diverted by cheesy shots of CGI animated explosions in complete destruction of the environment.