Before the review, I just clarify that I watched an extended 2 1/2 hour version of the film instead of the original, so this review is critiquing that version only. Onto the review now.
The most important parts of a 70s disaster movie are 1: it's characters (how in depth they are, how much the audience cares about them), and 2: it's visuals (special effects, spectacle, etc.) "The Swarm" fails at 1 of these.
You don't care about the characters, even though the film tries it's damndest to make you care, and other than Michael Caine, the acting is pretty bad. The film has a multi-million dollar budget, so it looks pretty good, and the special effects were average.
Those aren't the biggest problems though. What's the biggest problem of The Swarm? How unrealistic it is and how dumb it's logic is. Just the idea of the USA being taken over by bees is far fetched. What else is dumb? Well, in one scene, a passenger train is knocked off of its tracks, and when hitting the ground, blows up as if it had a ton of dynamite on it. In another scene, bees invade a plant, and attack a man in a control-room, causing him to stumble on some buttons. Him accidentally pressing some buttons causes the ENTIRE plant to be completely obliterated. There are several other inept scenes that happen mostly for cheap action scenes.
Speaking of action scenes, there isn't much action in it. Other than scenes of the bees attacking people, it's mostly just talk, which surprising for an Irwin Allen disaster movie. Maybe the lack of action is why they inserted the scenes I mentioned above.
Overall, far fetched and dumb, but it looks good, and Michael Caine was good in it. 4.5/10.
The most important parts of a 70s disaster movie are 1: it's characters (how in depth they are, how much the audience cares about them), and 2: it's visuals (special effects, spectacle, etc.) "The Swarm" fails at 1 of these.
You don't care about the characters, even though the film tries it's damndest to make you care, and other than Michael Caine, the acting is pretty bad. The film has a multi-million dollar budget, so it looks pretty good, and the special effects were average.
Those aren't the biggest problems though. What's the biggest problem of The Swarm? How unrealistic it is and how dumb it's logic is. Just the idea of the USA being taken over by bees is far fetched. What else is dumb? Well, in one scene, a passenger train is knocked off of its tracks, and when hitting the ground, blows up as if it had a ton of dynamite on it. In another scene, bees invade a plant, and attack a man in a control-room, causing him to stumble on some buttons. Him accidentally pressing some buttons causes the ENTIRE plant to be completely obliterated. There are several other inept scenes that happen mostly for cheap action scenes.
Speaking of action scenes, there isn't much action in it. Other than scenes of the bees attacking people, it's mostly just talk, which surprising for an Irwin Allen disaster movie. Maybe the lack of action is why they inserted the scenes I mentioned above.
Overall, far fetched and dumb, but it looks good, and Michael Caine was good in it. 4.5/10.
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