Amazon.com video review:
From yet another derivative science fiction novel by Michael
Crichton comes this equally derivative and flaccid movie, in which
three top Hollywood stars struggle to squeeze tension and excitement
out of material that doesn't match their talents. You're supposed to
find awe and mystery in Crichton's story about a team of scientists
and scholars who discover a 300-year-old alien spacecraft deep on the
ocean floor, but mostly you feel that this is all much ado about
nothing. The exploration team consists of a psychologist (Dustin
Hoffman), mathematician (Samuel L. Jackson), biochemist (Sharon
Stone), and an astrophysicist (Liev Schreiber), and when they enter
the alien ship they discover a mysterious sphere inside. What they
don't know is that the sphere has the power to manipulate their
thoughts and perceptions, and before long the scientists' undersea
habitat is a veritable haunted house of frightening visions and
creeping paranoia. Who can be trusted? What is the sphere's purpose,
and why is it on the ocean floor? Sphere makes some attempt to
answer these questions, but the film is a mess, and it leads to one of
the most anticlimactic endings of any science fiction film ever
made. There are moments of high intensity and psychological suspense,
and the stellar cast works hard to boost the talky screenplay. But
it's clear that this was a hurried production (Hoffman and director
Barry Levinson made Wag the Dog during an extended production
delay), and as a result Sphere looks and feels like a film that
wasn't quite ready for the cameras. Though it's by no means a waste of
time, it's undeniably disappointing. --Jeff Shannon
Amazon.com video review:
From yet another derivative science fiction novel by Michael
Crichton comes this equally derivative and flaccid movie, in which
three top Hollywood stars struggle to squeeze tension and excitement
out of material that doesn't match their talents. You're supposed to
find awe and mystery in Crichton's story about a team of scientists
and scholars who discover a 300-year-old alien spacecraft deep on the
ocean floor, but mostly you feel that this is all much ado about
nothing. The exploration team consists of a psychologist (Dustin
Hoffman), mathematician (Samuel L. Jackson), biochemist (Sharon
Stone), and an astrophysicist (Liev Schreiber), and when they enter
the alien ship they discover a mysterious sphere inside. What they
don't know is that the sphere has the power to manipulate their
thoughts and perceptions, and before long the scientists' undersea
habitat is a veritable haunted house of frightening visions and
creeping paranoia. Who can be trusted? What is the sphere's purpose,
and why is it on the ocean floor? Sphere makes some attempt to
answer these questions, but the film is a mess, and it leads to one of
the most anticlimactic endings of any science fiction film ever
made. There are moments of high intensity and psychological suspense,
and the stellar cast works hard to boost the talky screenplay. But
it's clear that this was a hurried production (Hoffman and director
Barry Levinson made Wag the Dog during an extended production
delay), and as a result Sphere looks and feels like a film that
wasn't quite ready for the cameras. Though it's by no means a waste of
time, it's undeniably disappointing. The special edition DVD includes
audio commentary by Hoffman and Jackson and a behind-the-scenes
featurette, Shaping the Sphere: The Art of the Special Effects
Supervisor, exploring the alien ship's design and creation by
special effects technicians. --Jeff Shannon
