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The Triangle
2005 - NR - 240 Mins.
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| Director: Craig Baxley | | Producer: Bryan Singer | | Written By: Dean Devlin, Rockne O'Bannon | | Starring: Eric Stoltz, Sam Neill, Catherine Bell, Lou Diamond Phillips, Bruce Davidson |
| Review by: Harrison Cheung |
| Official Site: www.scifi.com/triangle/ |
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How can one of the great paranormal mysteries of the world be the subject of such a disappointing movie? Although the Bermuda Triangle makes for interesting documentaries, ‘The Triangle’ – an action/thriller/soap opera – goes too heavy on the melodrama and forgets why people have been intrigued by centuries of disappearing ships and planes in this area of the Atlantic Ocean.
Glance at the credits and ‘The Triangle’ looks promising. Directed by TV veteran, Craig Baxley (‘Kingdom Hospital’), this project was written by Dean Devlin (‘Independence Day’) and Rockne O’Bannon (‘Farscape’). The producer was none other than Bryan Singer of ‘X-Men’ fame. A strong B cast includes Sam Neill, Eric Stoltz, and Lou Diamond Phillips. CGI special effects are better than average with some eerie and shocking sequences of planes, ships and various weather and time/space/continuum effects.
The story is based on a classic plotline – a rich, eccentric billionaire (are there any other kinds?) hires a team of experts to figure out the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle because he’s wondering why he keeps losing ships. The team consists of a skeptical journalist, an ocean engineer, a scientist, and a psychic. It’s a good if clichéd setup that was used as recently as ‘Alien versus Predator’ and goes back to Vincent Price horror flicks if not further.
The problem is that each character has a story of redemption that you know a space/time/alternate universe “if I had the chance to do it all over again” solution is waiting in the wings. Add to that a government conspiracy story that seems glued on and you get ‘The Triangle’ changing from what could have been a creepy yarn or an illogical action thriller (a la ‘ID4’) into a preachy “if I could turn back time” story. This is like a long ‘Star Trek’ time paradox episode at its most cumbersome.
My vote for most awful career disaster has to be Lou Diamond Phillips who must have been promised that his role would be challenging. As a father of one or two kids (depending on the timeline) with a bad marriage, he goes through a hackneyed third rate ‘Twilight Zone’ episode when he thinks he’s beginning to go insane whenever he gains or loses a kid at every swing of a screen door. There are way too many scenes of Phillips looking intensely disturbed at empty rooms.
Bruce Davidson seems to have fun playing a psychic character that could have been a John Edwards clone. And a bland Eric Stoltz is another guy with a bad marriage and a world of regrets.
If only ‘The Triangle’ was more mystery and less ‘Groundhog Day,’ it would have been more entertaining. There are a couple of twists and turns, but nothing a good wrinkle in time can’t fix.
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