Exploding Sun Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

Exploding Sun Blu-ray Movie Review

Won't make your head explode.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman October 14, 2013

Oh, wow, another, uh, *yawn,* Earth-on-the-brink-of-destruction movie. And a three-hour miniseries at that. Exploding Sun is one of the latest in Sonar Entertainment's "Doomsday" series of films that have recently begun bringing their brand of midlevel movie mayhem to the small screen. Following in the footsteps of the decent-not-good end-of-the-world Cat. 8 and Delete films, Exploding Sun tells the story of a freak accident that triggers a nasty reaction from the bright orange fireball situated some 93 million miles away from Earth and threatens to destroy the world. That's a long way for doom to travel. The film borrows liberally from bigger and better projects, as these sorts tend to do, and it follows basic Sonar Entertainment structure in that it's a step above lower grade junk from SyFy and The Asylum with its comparatively superior visual effects, stronger story, and better acting. Exploding Sun doesn't rival a good old Roland Emmerich disaster blockbuster, but for a lower budget, lower exposure film, it's halfway entertaining in a simple watch-and-forget way.

"I'm going to change the world. Just not in a good way."

Peter Roebling (Bruce Dinsmore) is forever changing the landscape of space travel. He's launching a new vessel, the Roebling Clipper, and carrying on her a group of lottery-winning civilians -- and the United States' First Lady -- on a journey around the moon and back to Earth. With current technology, that would be a rather lengthy trip. On his vessel, it'll take around seven hours. He's developed a propulsion system, the so-called "Scalar Drive," that allows the ship to travel an astonishing 1,300 miles per second, or about 1/10,000 the speed of light. He claims it's safe, but when a malfunction occurs, the vehicle's radically advanced drive disrupts the sun and causes a chain reaction that could destroy all life on Earth. Now, a team of specialists must race against time to put an end to the "exploding sun" while civilians are faced with unimaginable consequences in a true end times scenario.

Although Exploding Sun more or less gets everything right, it only does so in a rather generic, few-frills sort of fashion. The film can be incredibly corny, particularly in its Armageddon-styled "look at how cool we are as we walk side-by-side towards the space ship" scene. The picture plays fast and hard with all variety of genre cliché elsewhere, too. There's the usual array of multiple characters and sprawling story lines that become interconnected through tragedy and trial, the first half defined largely by the former and the second half the latter. Included are classics such as "two men love the same woman," "the family separated by the tragedy," and "the high-stakes dealings inside a tense White House." The film does shift gears, a bit, and follows a humanitarian in Afghanistan and the unthinkable consequences of local custom mixed with end-of-days tragedy hanging over a life-and-death situation. It's not usually all that novel, then, but there's is something to be said for the familiarity that helps make these sorts of movie passably entertaining time and again.

Veteran genre viewers will immediately recognize that much of the film's first half -- particularly its emotional core -- borrows from Deep Impact while elements of the second feel like they've been lifted from the likes of Jericho and other end-of-days, small-town-bands-together sorts. There's more to each half, for sure, though not much that really commands the screen and demands the audience's undivided attention. Movies like this are best enjoyed more as background noise, and in that capacity Exploding Sun works very well as something to have on while working a puzzle or some other unrelated endeavor that still allows for some leeway to shift attention between the tasks. Even as a "sit down and watch" film where one might lend the picture his or her full attention, it's at least never insultingly bad, even when it borrows heaviest from better fare or scrapes the bottom of the cliché barrel. Just as important, the cast plays it well and rather straight, rising above the type, at least as far as the film will allow, and injecting a pleasing bit of honest emotion into the film that helps, at least momentarily, to mask the rather trite, hackneyed pieces that aren't out of place but aren't quite as well realized as they might have been, and were in those better movies.

Exploding Sun Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Exploding Sun's HD video origins translate well to Blu-ray. Though it's not razor-sharp at every turn, it's very well defined, generally, and showcases very even, accurate details. Faces and hair both stand out nicely. The ornate White House backdrops are particularly impressive, but more commonplace backgrounds also serve up satisfying visual results. The image is usually clean as a whistle, with no major bouts of noise to report. Colors are perhaps on the very slight side of pale. Skin tones in particular occasionally appear the slightest bit ghastly, though the entire palette does lack that real, strong color punch. Nevertheless, this is a very robust, reliable presentation that satisfies for a midlevel made-for-television production.

Exploding Sun Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Exploding Sun's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack is no beast, but it's at least an enjoyable, well-defined listening experience with some pop and heft. In a general sense, the track delivers a nice, wide, natural stage, playing music and effects clearly and robustly with a quality surround support structure. Ambient effects are handled nicely, whether applause in one early scene or much more potent and aggressive sound effects to begin part two. Part two also sees the majority of the heavy, exciting, action-like sound effects. While listeners will never feel like they're in a spacecraft or living in what might be Earth's final moments, there is certainly a good, balanced sense of general excitement to the effects. Dialogue plays clearly and consistently from the center. This is no major Hollywood Sci-Fi/Disaster soundtrack, but for a film of this size and scope, it's quite good.

Exploding Sun Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Exploding Sun contains only brief interview clips (questions are presented in text format) with the following individuals: David James Elliot (4:33), Julia Ormond (1:57), Anthony Lemke (3:39), Natalie Brown (3:29), and Alex Weiner (2:40).

Exploding Sun Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Exploding Sun is arguably the best of the recent crop of "Doomsday Series" films to arrive on Blu-ray. It's certainly not great, though. It borrows too heavily from better sources, the plot feels contrived and lacks imagination, and the various scenarios and the characters that shape them never escape very far from expected norms. Still, it's competently put together, the acting is fine, and the special effects are a few ticks above the insulting Asylum level. Like the other movies in the series, it's a little overlong but offers serviceable entertainment for a good three hours. Sonar Entertainment's Blu-ray release of Exploding Sun delivers strong video, solid audio, and a few cast interviews. Recommended.