After viewing 'Snowmageddon', I realized one thing. That this so called movie titled 'Snowmageddon' does not involve a scenario worthy of the title of 'Snowmageddon'. It's like 'Halloween 3', you know the one without Michael Myers as the bad guy. 'Snowmageddon' is a SYFY original film and combines an asinine plot, terrible acting, and even worse special effects. I'd say they special effects are just a half step up from the effects in 'Birdemic: Shock and Terror'.
When I first heard the title and saw the cover art, I expected a certain type of disaster film. One that involved tons of snow and an end of the world scenario. Boy, was I wrong. However, I actually laughed out loud when I witnessed what caused 'Snowmageddon' to happen. The cause of 'Snowmageddon' is a toy snow globe. I'll repeat that. The cause of 'Snowmageddon' is a toy snow globe. I'll explain.
The film takes place in Normal, Alaska and centers around the Miller family. The father (David Cubitt) is the sheriff, the mother is a helicopter pilot (Laura Harris), and their two kids Jennifer (Magda Apanowicz) and Rudy (Dylan Madzke). It's almost Christmas time when a mysterious package disguised as a present appears on the Miller's doorstep. Rudy opens the package and discovers that it's a snow globe with an exact replica of their town trapped inside.
One flick of the wrist, a turn of the crank, and couple shakes of the snow globe and all hell breaks loose, or a version of mediocre hell breaks loose in the form of small earthquakes, tiny avalanches, and icebergs and rocks coming up from the ground. The earthquakes only cause minor damage with a few people getting injured because they are too stupid to get out of the way. There was an avalanche, but luckily the few people that were in the path of the avalanche either dodged it or were in a giant snow plow car and almost immediately rescued. And all of these evil disasters (I don't say natural), because these disasters always abruptly ended once someone died or was injured.
Fred (Michael Hogan from 'Battlestar Galactica), the local toy store owner seems to know a little bit about the snow globe. He tells people that the snow globe is cursed and that the only solution is to toss the evil snow globe into a fiery volcano in the same vein of 'Lord of the Rings'. And yes, this all happens in the span of 89 minutes.
All logic and accountability is wasted on this movie. With a title like 'Snowmageddon', I expect tons of snow killing people and an apocalyptic type of scenario. There was none of that here. The special effects looked like they were made by somebody's teenage cousin and the acting was laughable. But what do you expect from a creative team that have produced such titles as 'Ice Quake', 'Mega Cyclone', and 'Mongolian Death Worm'. The only way I would ever watch this again would be if the good folks at Rifftrax were to riff this film. Stay away from this movie.
The video comes with a 1080p HD transfer and is presented in 1.78:1 aspect ratio. The detail is pretty decent with this film as we can make out facial flaws and imperfections in the snow. The colors are mostly white and grey throughout the film, however the scenes indoors have greens and reds that pop.
The blacks are not as deep and inky as I'd like them to be and there is a bit of banding and aliasing here too. The whole film seems a but muted and soft as the depth is not quite there, which is not good as this film takes place in the mountains and it would have been nice to have some depth with the avalanches.
The audio sports a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix and sounds okay. The dialogue is always crisp and clear and focused on the front speakers. The sound effects are laughable though and make it more funny than suspenseful during the more action packed sequences. The audio lacks that full sound whenever there is a disaster happening. There isn't a lot of bass with the explosions either.
However, the ambient noise and multiple explosions do echo through the surround sound, but not at full force. The audio should have had a better impact with it being a disaster movie and all. I was disappointed with this audio mix.
None.
'Snowmageddon' is terrible on every level. From the plot to the execution, all the way down to the acting and special effects. The audio and video presentations are sub par with virtually no extras to speak about. I cannot in good conscience recommend this to anyone no matter what the price. If you love terrible movies, then rent it, but again, stay far away from this movie.
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