Sphere (1998)

nTitle: Sphere (1998)

nDirector: Barry Levinson

nCast: Dustin Hoffman, Samuel L. Jackson, Sharon Stone, Live Schreiber,nQueen Latifah

nReview:

nSome movies just fall flat no matter the amount of talentnthat’s behind them. That being said, I wouldn’t go as far as calling Sphere anfailed attempt. In my opinion Sphere was simply not all that it could have been,nstill it ends up being an interesting film. Dustin Hoffman himself said that henhad some issues in regards to the film, he felt it was not finished, that itnneeded to be worked on a bit more and I have to say that I agree with himnbecause the film feels like a couple of short films strungntogether, without smooth transitions from moment to moment. This is probablynthe reason why they decided to divide the film with title cards that read “ThenSphere”, “The Spaceship”, “The Monster” and so on. Speaking of ‘The Monster’nwhat a disappointment; but more on that later.

nSphere tells the story of how the U.S. Government has foundnan abandoned spaceship resting deep within the darkest pits of the ocean. Theynquickly go ahead and gather a team of experts that includes a biologist, a physicist,na mathematician and a psychiatrist to deal with a possible alien encounter. Butnthey don’t know if there’s aliens on the ship, they are simply speculating. Theirnpurpose is to find out what this mysterious spaceship is all about, to takenthat first step, those first risks. They soon discover that the ship holds annominous golden sphere inside of it, but what is it? What does it do? Whoncontrols it?

nSo basically, Sphere attempts to be the kind of sciencenfiction film I love the most: the philosophical science fiction film. This isnnot a science fiction film with light saber battles or the U.S. military shootingntheir guns at little green men, no, this film attempts to be something deepernand more thought provoking; which is always a plus for me. Gotta love it when a film tries to go deepernthen your regular dumb flick. Sphere actually wants to talk about importantnthemes that I’m sure were better explored on the Michael Crichton novel onnwhich the film is based on; I never read this book so my review is solely basednon the film itself. I say Sphere is an ‘attempt at a deep film’ because I felt itndidn’t fully get there in my opinion. It does ask some interesting questions,nkind of in the same way that Prometheus (2012) did and I enjoyed that about it.nIn fact, it can be argued that this film comments on the nature of religion andnthe illusion behind it all. The use of fear to control the masses; the use of anbook to bring our fears to life; I of course enjoyed that about the film. Sphere starts out pretty cool because itnachieves a level of mystery to the sphere that was reminiscent of the mysterynrevolving around the ‘Monolith’ in Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1969), unfortunatelynthis film presents us with a promising premise…only to never truly deliver onnthe spectacle that we as an audience see on the horizon. This is always anletdown: the film that doesn’t deliver the goods.

nThe problem with this film is that it’s afraid to be what itnis supposed to be. It’s like one of those vampire movies that is afraid to usenthe word ‘vampire’ for fear of sounding cheesy. Sphere is a brainy sci-fi film,nbut it is also has horror elements to it. Sadly, this is a monster movie thatnis afraid to embrace its monstrous side. If this is a monster flick, then bynall means, show us some monsters! The film uses Jules Verne’s 20,000 LeaguesnUnder the Sea as a plot device, a character loves to read this book but isnscared of reading the ending because it’s “too scary”. Through the use of thenbook, the film hints that we might be seeing a huge squid attacking the goodnguys, we hear the squid, we see it on a computer monitor, but we never trulynsee the creature. What the film does is tease us to death; it shows usneverything but the monster. Can you imagine 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)nwithout the scene where giant squid attacks the Nautilus? One gets thenimpression that the filmmakers behind Sphere didn’t have the money to show thenmonster? This wouldn’t surprise me; the film was in hiatus for a while. Innfact, while this film was in hiatus, Levinson and Hoffman went off and did anwhole other film called Wag the Dog (1997); which by the way was releasednbefore Sphere was! This gives you a pretty good idea of how long the making ofnSphere was put off for; which of course points towards production problems,ncreative differences and a slew of other things that can slow a film down.

nA scene from Disney’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)

nSphere has many similarities with films like Leviathan (1989),nDeep Star Six (1989), Event Horizon (1997)nand James Cameron’s The Abyss (1989). Let’s count the similarities betweennSphere and The Abyss shall we? The film takes place in an underwater rig, withna small crew who end up meeting an alien life form. We get a strong willednwoman in a lead role. The crew cannot resurface because there’s a huge stormngoing on above, a plot device seen in almost all of these underwater monsternfilms. Somebody goes whacko at some point. And basically, Sphere was shot in similar fashion then The Abyss was, with giant water tanks and sets built on them. Extreme similarities can also benfound with P.W. Anderson’s Event Horizon (1997), because it also deals with ansphere that augments our fears. Anderson’snstyle of making films is he steals ideas from his favorite filmmakers andnauthors and reworks them, then spews them out as if they were his own. He isnthe Tarantino of science fiction. I’m thinking Anderson read Crichton’s novel and then didnhis own version of it. Typical Andersonnbehavior. Sphere came out one year after Event Horizon, it almost feels as if Levinsonnsaw Event Horizon and said let’s do Crichton’s book the right way, let’s makenan intelligent film! Which would explain why Sphere puts a lot of its emphasisnon philosophical ideas. This is one of Sphere’s strongest points, the philosophicalnangle. It asks questions like: Are we ready for the secrets of the universe? Arenwe ready to know it all? Or are we better off not knowing? Are we just babiesnin this universe? Are we a race of infants?

nWhat I enjoyed about Event Horizon is that it is a filmndealing with these phenomenal cosmic themes, like black holes and traveling tonother dimensions through them, but it does it in a highly entertaining way,nplus it never forgets that it is a horror movie. It didn’t forget to have somenfun with its themes. Sphere needed a little more of that entertainment value seennin Event Horizon to it. Why shy away from showing the monster? I’m willing tonbet that this films disappointing box office performance was due to audiencesnfeeling cheated. Audiences were expecting a spectacle or a monster movie (ornboth) and what they got was Stone, Hoffman and Jackson playing scientistsntalking about the ultimate knowledge and the secrets of the universe; which is coolnif you enjoy philosophical conversations, which I do, but if you don’t you’llnprobably think this is a boring film, or that the film cheated you. If you wantnsome spectacle, this movie does little in the way of giving it to you, find itnsomewhere else. For some reason, opportunities to give a little grandeur to thenproceedings are thrown away and shown in a hurry, basically, the film feelsnlike it was rushed; this is something I find surprising coming from such annaccomplished director as Levinson, I guess his forte was never science fictionnor the production problems ended up bringing the film down. Bottom line is thatnSphere had potential, but wasn’t given the time and dedication needed to make antruly special film.

nRating: 3 out of 5