Film Review
Whilst it faces some pretty stiff competition in a very crowded field
Krakatoa: East of Java probably
rates as the most dismal disaster movie of them all. The film
doubtless has its supporters, those who are able to defend its multiple
weaknesses and argue that it has some merits (okay so the effects
are pretty impressive but since when have decent effects made a truly
great film?), but it really is a film
whose
raison d'être is
pretty slim, if not totally beyond the perception threshold of most
mere mortals. The film's problems undoubtedly stem from its troubled
production, which saw multiple rewrites of its script and consequently
no clear vision as to what the film was supposed to be about or who it
was targeted at. The eruption of Krakota ends up being one,
albeit pretty cataclysmic, incident in an already over-convoluted plot
that abounds with soap-style digressions and implausible, poorly
developed characters. It's not only a disaster movie, it's a complete
disaster of a movie.
What could have been one of Cinerama Productions' most spectacular films
ended up being the one that effectively killed the company off,
although the critical onslaught the film attracted probably had more to
do with that than its intrinsic failings. A film that makes such
an elementary error as to mistake the location of the titular volcano
(Krakatoa is in fact sited to the
west
of Java) is unlikely to win many awards for credibility, but what makes
it so unbearable is the complete lack of discipline and focus that is
so clearly in evidence throughout the film. Just when you are
happily wrong-footed into thinking it's a family-friendly musical it
presents us with a lurid striptease sequence and a pretty authentic
visualisation of a state of drugs-induced delirium. Muddled,
tacky, lumbering and seriously overlong,
Krakatoa: East of Java is a
disaster of a film you will never want to experience more than once,
and even then you may end up regretting doing so for the rest of your
life.
© James Travers 2014
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
In 1883, Captain Chris Hanson leads a deep sea diving expedition with
the objective of recovering a fortune in pearls from a sunken ship off
the coast of the volcanic island of Krakatoa. Right from the
start, the expeditions appears to be cursed but things look up when the
sunken ship and its priceless cargo are discovered.
Unfortunately, at this precise moment the volcano decides to blow its
top...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.