Absolute Zero – 2006 – a freezing disaster
First off, there are a couple of things I don’t get with Absolute Zero. If you’re on an expedition to Antarctica, don’t you wear gloves in the cold? If the temperature drops to absolute zero (273 C / 459 F) everything will freeze, including the nitrogen and oxygen in the air. How can still the winds blow? How can helicopters fly? Apart from mistakes like this in the story, I think the drama works pretty well. The special effects are quite cheap though.
There are basically two types of disaster movies. First, we have the smaller scale type, where usually someone has cheated with the construction of a building to make more money. Second, we have natural disasters like storms, tidal waves, tsunamis, meteors, or, in this case, extreme temperatures. This type of disaster film can be classified into two main groups. The isolated ones deal with smaller phenomena like volcanos and tornados. Then, the kind of global disaster that Absolute Zero is all about, worldwide disasters that may or may not be the end of the entire humanity. At a minimum, it will affect millions of people.
It’s not much of an exaggeration to say that if you have seen one of these global disaster movies you have seen them all. Most of them follow the same formula. There’s usually a bunch of scientists claiming that there’s nothing wrong and there’s no need to panic. Then, there is this one scientist who comes to a different conclusion. The world as we know it is about to end. He is the one that is right of course. To make things even more typical he’s the laughing stock for the officials since the other group of scientists is presenting a more believable picture of the situation.
In this case, we also have an economic interest included in the plot. Well, we should call it by its true name – greed! This is usually more representative of the fake building disaster movie concept. An egocentric person who thinks of nothing else than himself and the money he can make from the disaster. He doesn’t care about humanity as long as he can get to safety. He doesn’t care about humanity and he doesn’t care about the people around him. Still, the others help him out when he gets into trouble. He pays back with betrayal.
It’s not a great or even a good movie, but it’s as entertaining as the next disaster movie. If you’re like me and find interest in the general concept of them you will enjoy this as well. Just be aware of its stereotype-ish nature.
