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Perfect Disaster
I must confess a fascination with severe weather and
disaster movies. This ABC DVD presentation of the 2006 Discovery
Channel/Impossible Pictures docu-dramas is very interesting. It takes
six cities from around the world and takes potential bad natural
phenomena to the extreme, as it were. Sydney fire-stormed, London
flooded, Hong Kong typhooned, Dallas super-tornadoed, Montreal
ice-rained and New York undergoes a “geomagnetic storm”.
Each 45min episode opens with one ‘hero’ who usually has a family and is
professionally-connected with the disaster about to unfold. This adds a
layer of schmalz that I found distracting and kept wishing away. The
production values are relatively high. For example, local casting is
used: the Sydney episode had familiar accents and locations!
Some of the special effects are a bit ambitious and come out looking
cheesy, which is a shame. The sound is Dolby 2.0. The tone of the show
is slightly alarmist, not helped by narrator Michael Carroll’s sometimes
hysterical enthusiasm.
I am also a fan of the 3D moving schematic graphics which explain what
is going on in the atmosphere or environment. They help the viewer
visualise complex phenomena like why the cold, dry air from a super-cell
falls and creates a downdraught which can be dangerous for
airplanes—neat!
One annoyance has to do with the packaging which has ABC Shop products
on the inside sleeve instead of telling you which three episodes are on
the first disc, and which on the second. This seems a bit careless
towards buyers!
I love this sort of thing and wouldn’t hesitate recommending it to
anyone who has the slightly inclination toward disaster genre or
apocalyptic visions!
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