What is it about free DVDs, that we will watch it even though we know the movie is bad? 'The Core' was like that with me. It's saving grace is that ALL its science is bad science, the premise that a now stationary Earth's core will somehow trigger widespread destruction and allow the Sun's energy to roast us simply is absurd. But so are all the other 'scientific' elements of the story, so we don't spend any time really worrying about it. Any more than we wonder how Superman can fly or Spiderman can shoot webs. There are even web pages devoted to a detailed analysis of all the flaws. However, I was happy to see them use the term 'unobtainium' for a new metal with super properties. In the motorcycle brotherhood, for years we have jokingly called certain parts as made of 'unobtainium', which was a way of saying that the part was so hard to find. So, the movie is just mediocre, but can be a fun 2 hours for one that is in the right frame of mind. Or, an excellent viewing for a class of physics or geology students, as a forum to discuss the bad science.
SPOILERS follow -- turns out the problem resulted from a military test of a new weapon based in Alaska. In a neat piece of movie magic, we see the sun's rays through a hole in the electromagnetic field (couldn't really happen) melt supports of the Golden Gate bridge, and we see it and vehicles fall into the bay. So this team of assorted guys and one gal plunge into the Earth's core carrying 5 nuclear bombs that their calculations show will start the core spinning once again if exploded just at the right places, at just the right times. One by one the Earthship encounters problems, crew members die in the Earth's crust, but the mission is pulled off, and the Earthship gets nuclear blast-propelled back to the surface, dodging obstacles and finding crevices, narrowly avoiding being crushed by a moving tectonic plate, and ending up on the ocean floor, where they were rescued after some whales help signal where they were. Just your typical disaster movie in the end. With funny, funny science.
SPOILERS follow -- turns out the problem resulted from a military test of a new weapon based in Alaska. In a neat piece of movie magic, we see the sun's rays through a hole in the electromagnetic field (couldn't really happen) melt supports of the Golden Gate bridge, and we see it and vehicles fall into the bay. So this team of assorted guys and one gal plunge into the Earth's core carrying 5 nuclear bombs that their calculations show will start the core spinning once again if exploded just at the right places, at just the right times. One by one the Earthship encounters problems, crew members die in the Earth's crust, but the mission is pulled off, and the Earthship gets nuclear blast-propelled back to the surface, dodging obstacles and finding crevices, narrowly avoiding being crushed by a moving tectonic plate, and ending up on the ocean floor, where they were rescued after some whales help signal where they were. Just your typical disaster movie in the end. With funny, funny science.