20130919: SciFi Review--Eve of Destruction

Eve of Destruction

1. Fundamentals
1. American live action television mini-series, 2013, rated R,
2. IMDB: 3.6/10.0 from 168 users.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 0% on the meter (impressive) from 6 users; 18% liked it from 1,530 audience ratings.
4. Directed by: Robert Lieberman.
5. Starring: Steven Weber as Karl Dameron, Christina Cox as Rachel Bannister, Treat Williams as Max Salinger, Aleks Paunovic as Ruslan, Jessica McLeod as Ruby Dameron (Karl's daughter), Colin Lawrence as David Jackson, Leah Gibson as Chloe Banks.


2. Episode 1, 87 minutes
1. From Netflix: "Scientists drill a hole in the universe to harvest a limitless pool of 'dark energy', but the experiment goes horribly wrong and wipes an entire city off the map. Now, the effort to save the world, becomes the ultimate threat that could destroy it."
2. What could possibly go wrong here?  Who sanctioned such an effort?
3. Modelling assertion: Dark energy is 75% of the universe.  The intention is to tap this.
4. Billionaire Max Salinger has a big plans--feed the world with engineered plants; supply the world's energy needs with dark energy.  His Proteus Group has eco-activist opposition, P53.  They start with the plants, then move on to the dark energy effort.


5. Sub-plot: Karl and his daughter Ruby's ongoing dysfunctional relationship; his not resolving the death of his wife ten years previous.
6. Sub-plot: propagandizing by the activist group P53.  Ruby gets sucked into this.
7. Sub-plot: Ruslan was in Russia (living in Lhitiska) as a lineman.  He witnesses his town being destroyed by lightning.  He moves to America, around Denver, and gets another job as a lineman.  His second marriage is not going well.
8. Sub-plot: Max is sleeping with Chloe, and Max's man on scene orders her to keep mum, even from Karl and Rachel.  So the tech leads are kept in the dark about hardware problems.


9. The first full-on tests have problems.  There's a breach in the accelerator's coolant system, and Ruslan witnesses phenomena much as he did at Lhitiska.


10. There was a fatality from this, and the coverup started.  Max entreats Chloe to stay silent about the accident. David tries to comfort and silence the relatives of the dead man.  Ruslan finds Karl and tells him about Lhitiska.  Karl tries to confirm or deny Ruslan's story with an old friend, Ilya.  So much lying, so little time. 


11. Ruby joins with P53, and provides access to the Proteus project.  Sabotage ensues.  She provides passwords.  She provides a security pass to get onto the Proteus campus.  She betrays everyone, in other words, and the huge damage that follows is her fault.


12. After the security breach, another proving test is started, and the effects are immediate.  The neighborhood Ruslan's American family lives ignites. The full test is yet to come.


3. Episode 2, 87 minutes
1. Karl and Rachel argue about going forward.  P53 plans further depredations.  Max wants to go forward no matter what.  Ruslan's friends deal with their house burning down, the wife's mom dying, and their son needing an operation.
2. Max uses Chloe and David to cut Rachel out of the loop, and do the experiment anyway.


3. Disaster results: everything that could go wrong does go wrong.  The dark energy source is found, and keeps coming to us, even when power is shutoff.
4. Will the surviving personnel have any chance of closing the hole in the universe?


4. Conclusions
1. One sentence summary: Standard fare in high-level failure in decision-making about large science efforts; the story is stretched out too far.
2. Shorter summary: Failure in decision-making in large science effort.
3. Three stars of five.


5. Scores
1. Cinematography: 10/10 Excellent.


2. Sound: 7/10 Some of the worst incidental music ever in the introductory credits.  The spoken word is well done.


3. Special Effects: 7/10 The visuals are good, but the incidental sound is goofy.


4. Acting: 5/10 Steven Weber, Christina Cox, Treat Williams, and Aleks Paunovic are good enough, given what the screenplay had them say.  Jessica McLeod, Colin Lawrence, Leah Gibson, and the P53 actors I could have done without.


5. Screenplay: 6/10 Beginning, middle, end.  Not so bad there. The P53 crew were not believable, which made the motivational parts hard to accept.  Also, the amount of material here could have been compressed into two hours.