Rating summary

Movie		0.5
Video		1.5
Audio		2.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		1.0

MegaFault Blu-ray Movie Review

'Intelligent' earthquakes that chase after would-be victims is only one of the many ridiculous things that make 'Megafault' a true classic among cinematic rubbish.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 18, 2010

The megafault is now an extinction event.

"SyFy presents:" two words that strike fear into the hearts of both the more demanding and the most timid of moviegoers, promising nothing short of an awful -- or looked at from another perspective, an awfully fun -- movie-watching experience. Indeed, for those viewers that can weather the storm and make it through the deluge of "bad" at every turn, "SyFy presents" can engender a sense of great joy and anticipation at what's about to unfold, those viewers that revel in bottom-feeding rubbish waiting with baited breath in hopes that this one will top them all as the worst of the worst. While it's almost impossible to quantify SyFy movies at an absolute level, there's no doubt that any list worth its weight in cheese would have to place 2009's Megafault among the elite of made-for-television garbage. Sure, it's got all the usual bases covered -- a recycled and dumbed-down plot, terrible special effects, bad acting, miserable pacing, and lazy direction -- but it's in the intangibles, those things that take a movie like this from bad to worse to comically absurd, where Megafault stands above the crowd. Terrible science, incredibly lazy editing, mind-numbingly obvious continuity errors, atrocious dialogue, and even makeup that looks like it was applied in the dark with a paint roller all sink Megafault deep into the annals of bad moviemaking as one of the prime examples of SyFy blunders gone terribly wrong, even by that channel's already low standards.

Don't look at me, this isn't my (mega)fault!

A demolition team is setting charges in a remote area of West Virginia when the Earth opens up and swallows the men. In Washington, D.C., Seismologist Amy Lane (Brittany Murphy, 8 Mile) is delivering a presentation on earthquake preparedness when a massive tremor strikes the city. Lane's husband and daughter catch a C-130 bound for Denver to return to the safety of their Western home, while she travels to the site of the West Virginia disaster to assess the situation. There, she rescues the sole survivor of the incident, Boomer (Eriq La Salle, "ER"), and soon learns that the quake -- what appears to be a megafault and with the potential to devastate the entire country -- is spreading west. Though communications have gone down, Lane learns that her husband's plane has crashed in the midwest, but she and Boomer must work with a secret military agency and an immensely powerful orbital weapon in hopes of stopping the quake in its tracks.

"Look! That's at least a seven-point-oh on the richter scale. Those buildings weren't built to sustain that kind of strain," Dr. Lane says while casually flying over a devastated Lexington, Kentucky, sounding more like a tour guide than a concerned professional, all the while putting her hand over her mouth, feigning terror but looking more like she's trying to hold back a laugh. "Yeah, the whole world is shifting." Whowouldathunkit? "What are you going to do, declare war on an earthquake?" Sounds fun! Ready, aim, fire! "Why can't we move the grand canyon?" Doh! Of course! We'll just go rent tractor, tie some rope around it, and haul it into the path of the megafault! There's no good starting point to begin a bash-fest of Megafault, so the picture's atrocious dialogue, by pure random chance, gets the distinction of hitting leadoff for this portion of the review. The dialogue is insanely ridiculous, built around bad science and poor characterization, accentuated by actors that don't care. There's been more emotion on display during a Nets-Timberwolves 2009-2010 NBA regular season game. Seriously, though, it takes a whopping eight minutes for this one to readily identify itself as one of the stinkiest stinkers of all time. No doubt every viewer will be sitting in a complete daze, blindsided that anything can be this monumentally absurd. Forget about the story, memory cannot recall a movie with lesser acting, a slower pace, duller direction, worse dialogue, and even absurdly poor makeup work (Brittany Murphy's first five minutes of screen time sees her with some heavy brown streak running across her forehead, and this is when she's supposed to be all dolled up for her presentation and before she finds herself knee-deep in the megafault. What, were there no mirrors on set? Was every crew member blindfolded during the shoot? The latter, especially, would explain quite a bit).

Usually, a Disaster movie demands a suspension of disbelief. That's fine. With Megafault, the real suspension of disbelief comes not from the story, but rather everything around it. A lame, recycled plot is the least of Megafault's problems next to the acting, the rancid special effects that are so jumpy they look as if every other frame was removed from the image, and the incredibly egregious continuity errors. As for those bad performances, the actors -- both those with some clout behind their names and nameless extras alike -- usually look like one of two things: deer in headlights or simply just out of their league, yes, even in a movie like Megafault. Casting call for a SyFy original picture: Megafault! Qualifications: none, but a pulse and prior acting experience, say, portraying a tree in a fifth grade play, would be a bonus! The special effects are fairly typical of a SyFY production: minimalist, cheap, and unconvincing. Then, there's the continuity errors. A character blows up a port-a-potty as a distraction (strangely enough, he goes inside one, exits, goes in another one, and sets the charge in there; why the first one wasn't "good enough" to blow remains a mystery). When it blows, another character charges it with fire extinguisher to put the flames out. Reasonable enough. Unfortunately, by the time he gets there, the fire's obviously been put out already, yet he proceeds to blast the remains of the toilet with his extinguisher. Oops. Dr. Lane's family is flying out of D.C. on a C-130 back to Denver. It's reported that the plane crashed "just outside of St. Louis" (direct quote from the movie). However, when the movie cuts to the crash site, the location is identified as Stillwater, Oklahoma. According to Mapquest, Stillwater is exactly 465.23 miles from St. Louis. Yeah, and Washington, D.C. is "just outside of" Chicago. Oops. The megafault was caused by a super-secret military "orbital tectonic weapon" that can cause earthquakes. It "fires an invisible phase beam at the target...we can use it on our enemies and they don't even know they've been attacked." Unfortunately, when the weapon is fired later in the movie, it shoots out a highly visible "phase beam." Oops. Then there's the grandaddy of the movie's continuity mistakes. A series of charges are set at the end of the movie in hopes of creating a chasm in the ground to absorb the megafault's power, in essence creating a second Grand Canyon. First, it's said there need to be "35 blast sites." Then, when three are detonated, Boomer says that there are only 15 remaining. In reality, there are many dozens more than 15, even more than the 35 previously hinted at as a truck drives past explosion after explosion after explosion after explosion after explosion after explosion after explosion after explosion after explosion...after explosion after explosion after explosion after explosion after explosion...after explosion after explosion after explosion after explosion after explosion after explosion...Oops. That's not even to mention that the entire sequence uses the same shots over and over again. Oops. Megafault: quite possibly the worst SyFY movie yet.

MegaFault Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Megafault stumbles onto Blu-ray with a transfer that's almost as disastrous as this Disaster movie itself. Though this is Echo Bridge's first Blu-ray release since the end of 2008, it's the same old story with the studio churning out transfers that barely pass as high definition. Megafault is positively riddled with edge enhancement. Thick halos surround objects throughout the movie, outlining faces (see screenshot above) and even making a rope that Dr. Lane uses to descend into a crater appear as if it's glowing (see screenshot 10). The print is also covered in random splotches and scratches, while colors appear dim and washed out. Some shots appear blurry and chunky, and faces reveal absolutely no texturing at all. Brittany Murphy's face looks like a dark tan smudge with no definition, though part of the problem seems to stem from the awful makeup job. Other details are equally flat and lifeless. To make matters worse, there are a few jagged edges and a strange ghosting effect in a couple of shots, along with blocking and aliasing, mostly found alongside the picture' shoddy special effects work. There are really no redeeming qualities with this one; Megafault should look far better than this, even if it is a budget made-for-television title.

MegaFault Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Almost as poor is Megafault's Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack; no lossless or uncompressed soundtracks are included. This track lacks in raw volume even at reference levels; it's puny and undefined, though several more aggressive elements -- explosions, for instance -- pack at least a passable wallop. However, there's a distinct absence of clarity here and anywhere else in the track. Ambience is lacking and unconvincing; audience applause as heard in a scene in chapter two is best described as "puny," sounding more like two or three individuals halfheartedly clapping rather than the roomful of people seen in the movie. Additionally, sound strangely and suddenly reduces in volume and suddenly comes back up at least once in the movie, as if it's trying not to drop completely out. Fortunately, dialogue reproduction is mostly steady and discernible. For an "Action movie," Megafault's Blu-ray soundtrack barely registers on the Richter Scale.

MegaFault Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Megafault contains no special features, though there is a "top menu," which is unusual for an Echo Bridge title.

MegaFault Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Usually when the end credits roll, they begin with listing the name of the Director, maybe the cast, or on television, the Executive Producer. Not so in Megafault. For some reason, the first credit lists...Scott Meehan, the production's legal counsel? One can only wonder what in the world was going on behind-the-scenes to necessitate that. Who knows, who cares. Megafault stinks, but it's actually much funnier than most Comedies, making it well worth a watch for the sheer hilarity of the whole thing. Echo Bridge's Blu-ray is barely better than the movie. No extras, an awful 1080p transfer, and a measly Dolby Digital 2.0 track are all this one has to offer. Nevertheless, Megafault comes recommended if only to revel in the sheer absurdity of every aspect of the production.