Skyfire (2019)

Directed by: Simon West | 97 minutes | action | Actors: Xueqi Wang, Hannah Quinlivan, Shawn Dou, Jason Isaacs, An Bai, Lingchen Ji, Liang Shi, Lawrence de Stefano, Tongjiang Hou, Yiqing Li, Alice Rietveld, Xinmo Ma, Makena Taylor, Gigi Velicitat

You just have to dare to watch another disaster film after ‘2012’. In the megalomaniac ‘2012’ by director Roland Emmerich, the entire globe went to the gallemies. Volcanoes, tsunamis, earthquakes: all forms of natural violence came at the cinema visitor. Nobody dared to make it as colorful as Emmerich anymore and it often remained a disaster (in the form of a volcano or tornado). Simon West dares to cram multiple disasters into his film and he still manages quite well. Enter ‘Sky Fire’.

Greedy businessman Jack Harris (Jason Isaacs) has turned Tianhuo Island into an adventure park. It’s a place for the general public that craves action. A working volcano acts as a magnet. Then a geologist discovers that the volcano is about to erupt and that the island must be evacuated. She is not listened to and disaster is about to take place.

Director Simon West scored hits with ‘Tombraider’ and ‘Expendables 2’. In recent years he has mainly been active in China. ‘Sky Fire’ is therefore a Chinese affair in which a wonderfully grimacing Isaacs is allowed to go wild as an angry Westerner. And it has to be said: ‘Sky Fire’ looks nice and does everything you would expect from a genre film. The natural disasters look good – despite coming from the computer – and the pace is fast. There is a lot going on and the pace never slows down.

The soundtrack is also very good. ‘Sky Fire’ is an entertaining film for those who like to watch digital disaster in which ordinary mortals turn into heroes and problems – no matter how big – are solved within an hour and a half. The fast tempo also prevents any kind of depth in this print. If that’s not a problem for you, then a cool action film with a high nonsense content is waiting for you. If you take this Asian blockbuster with a good amount of salt(e popcorn), there is a lot to enjoy.