Wrriten by Michael Crichton, the
Sphere is another one of those Hollywood blockbuster movie adaptations
of his book that begins with an alien spacecraft being discovered on the
bottom of the ocean floor. Bringing together a group of specialists to
investigate, Captain Barnes (Peter Coyote) leads them into the unknown
which includes psychologist Norman Goodman (Dustin Hoffman), biochemist
Beth Halpern (Sharon Stone), mathematician Harry Adams (Samuel L.
Jackson) and astrophysicist Ted Fileding (Liev Schreiber) in this
surreal science fiction story.
Upon discovering the craft, they realize
that the craft is actually a vessel from the future and more
specifically the United States. As they investigate the origin of this
craft and how it got here, they discover that it was dragged through a black hole and to add
to the mystery, they discover a giant metallic like sphere aboard the
craft which seems to
pulsate.
Eventually strange things begin to happen on this craft and
through the ships logs, they discover that something more nefarious is
the cause of their problems, however their paranoia soon starts to
build. Of course, the actors in the movie help portray the raw feelings
and emotions of this story, however the story begins to break away
during the last half of the film as the investigators discover that they
are responsible for the strange manifestations that are plaguing them.
The Sphere is an interesting premise but
during the Crichton period of Hollywood, it seemed he could do no evil
and producers jumped on his books. Unfortunately the Sphere is one of
those movies that began with a great premise, however as the movie
flowed, it eventually lead to a lackluster ending.
On Blu-ray, the video transfer is clean with detailed images and strong
blacks. The special effects look great for a movie of this era and it's
definitely one of the better transfers from Warner. Adding TrueHD 5.1
for sound, you hear everything in this movie that is not only
exceptionally crisp but helps immerse (pun intended) into this
underwater science fiction flick. For extras, the movies come with
commentary by Hoffman and Jackson that is actually quite interesting and
once again Samuel L. Jackson steals the show. To add to the special
features, it also comes with some featurettes in standard definition
about the making of the movie, the theatrical trailer and three TV
spots.
All in all, the Sphere is an interesting
science fiction movie that attempts to go where no science fiction has
gone before, well... not really but it tried for new heights and almost
succeeded. There's definitely worst movies out there!
