For their new film Continental Split, The Asylum deal with a problem that can possibly rip this nation apart. No, it’s not the election looming near the horizon, but a massive fault line located in the middle part of the United States that is on the verge of having the most devastating earthquake ever recorded.
However, it fumbles right from the start, when a government geologist (Quintin Mims, NoHo: A North Hollywood Story, Christmas Down Under) who is there for the investigation of a newly created lake begins to argue with a local who is doing fishing in the water. The lake, however, is only three months old and it is unusual for a lake’s dock to look like it was built more than 30 years ago, but quite evidently this one did.
I guess it really doesn’t make any sense as a tremor comes along and sweeps the lake and the dock into a massive sinkhole that deposits them somewhere below. It also creates one in New Madrid’s streets that nearly! catches Eric (Crew Morrow, The Bold and the Beautiful) and Brenda (Roxanne G.C. Brooks, Road to the Well, The Snow is Always Whiter).
The son of Arthur, Nick and Alison’s friend Eric Weddle, previously mentioned in the series, was focused on tracking the tremors. Refusing to budge, Emily, Eric’s sister, argues back and up and states “Dad will pay real plugs!” Emily, too, wanted to live with her father–Alan.
As for this entire saga, it should be common knowledge because it appears in almost every episode. Continental Separation starts rather like watching some kind of a recap for The Asylum’s, the film studio behind the series in question, strongest cinematic points part one, followed by a number of love–hated plot construction attacks. The implication here being that Cami and Alan divorced because, surprise surprise, Cami cared about the environment while Alan owned and operated half of the fracking businesses in the state, and guess what all these new earthquakes are? Unresolved conflicts between the two seem to be sabotaging the marriage as well. But can the couple endure one more time and attempt to save first their continent and then their marriage? Only one can guess.
There does exist a significant fault line in the Midwest, the New Madrid Seismic Zone, but it has been dormant since a bout of earthquakes during the years of 1811 and 1812, which reportedly caused the Mississippi River to flow in reverse. Therefore, there is some genuine science included in Continental Split, which is somewhat atypical of this firm.
Unfortunately, it is soon submerged under mountains of nonsense, and a love triangle that is more suited to a daytime TV show than this book, where Cami loves Alan but also is engaged to her colleague Finn (Canyon Prince, Timecop: The Berlin Decision, Fortress). As if that is not enough, there is even a evil odious earthquake expert who is like a character in Twister who wants to nuke the fault line to get rid of earthquakes.
Director Nick Lyon (On Fire, Christmas in Vienna) and writers Gil Luna (Population 2 the Director’s Cut, Attack on Titan) and Joe Roche (Attack of the Meth Gator, Alien Conquest) do provide the audience in one of these films the appropriate number of quake sequences, however, they are quite the mixed bag. Good looking scenes are those where a lake escapes to be swallowed by a sinkhole.
But after a tremor conveniently hits as the characters are arguing with the governor that he should take drastic measures, these shots of vehicles quietly passing through streets while the backdrop is vandalized by CGI are more likely to elicit derision than any other emotion. A subsequent image of rushing flood waters heading for a city are possibly even worse.
By the time Continental Split actually reaches what might be termed its climactic resolution which is characteristic of Hello channel triggering romances, I found myself wanting to split and leave in equal measures. Lurking within the script was the possibility of an interesting film, but it is not developed. And the filmmakers take the path of least resistance from most of the situations. Add to it shoddy direction, a map that is intended to depict the fault zone for example clearly about California, and you have yet another disaster film whose premise is far from gripping.
For more movies visit like Continental Split on 123Movies.