10.5: Apocalypse
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- Release Date: May 21, 2006
- Directed by: John Lafia
- Written by: John Lafia
- Runtime: 2 hours 49 minutes
- Series: 10.5
This is a miniseries that I remember getting on DVD way back in middle school or so. The original 10.5 miniseries aired on TV when I was in kindergarten or first grade. Seeing the commercials for it, little kid me was interested in watching all of these big cities crumble to the ground. I don't remember much from it since I haven't watched it in almost 20 years, but I do remember that it had something to do with a massive earthquake that sliced off part of California. So, when I found this miniseries on DVD years ago, I was curious to see how the U.S. would be torn apart this time around.
In this follow-up miniseries, Mother Nature herself decides that she hasn't had enough fun ripping up North America. Starting in Washington, earthquakes and other natural disasters start occuring all over the United States. Multiple large cities are destroyed as these earthquakes cause fault lines to open up, causing tsunamis to occur and volcanoes to awaken. A massive fault line starts to rip open down the middle of the country, threatening to rip the continent itself in half. If you can't tell by that description alone, this miniseries is super over the top. I enjoy a good disaster movie, and I have a big soft spot for ones like Twister, Armageddon, or even 2012. On paper, I should enjoy just how dumb something like this is. It's mostly wooden characters having boring conversations and watching helplessly as the world is destroyed around them. If you watch this thing just for the spectacle, you may be pleased with it.
My big gripe with this thing is the fact that it's a made for TV miniseries. This leads to two big problems. 1. It's too goddamn long. This should be a 90-minute to two hour film, not a three-hour miniseries. These characters are way too wooden to want to spend that much time with. 2. Because of its small budget, the effects work is shoddy as all hell. This may have looked ok when it first aired in 2006, but watching it now will give you a laugh. Not only is TV-budget CGI abused to all hell, but it uses the same sound effects for crumbling debris and destruciton over and over again. The same sound that plays for a building collapsing will play as the continent is ripping apart and collapsing in on itself. I understand that they had limited resources to work with, but I found it very funny. When the finale hits and our cast of characters are crying as the country is physically split in two, I couldn't help but laugh a little bit. This is Independence Day: Resurgence-levels of destruction done with a micro-fraction of the budget.
If you like disaster movies, this one will give you some laughs, but there are way better ones out there that you could be watching.