Sort of like an above grade soap opera. Extremely earnest with deeply furrowed brows and all that. The simple truth is that I'm too good for TV movies, they are beneath me. I should only watch "professional" movies and even then it's pretty hit & miss.The lead guy, dude man, I dunno, I just wasn't buying it, especially after he appeared to have been dipped in a vat of silicone grease which I think was supposed to look like sweat but was way more gross than that and hard to stomach the visual while I was snacking during the movie. And the female big cheese, maybe FEMA director or some such important post, she looked very rough after just a couple days of volcanic activity. Not the fresh faced hottie I would have preferred.So the movie definitely has the flavor of boiled cabbage. I'd rather watch a straight documentary/science show like they used to have on The Learning Channel before they stuffed it with trash like 1000 Ways To Get Your Head Caught In A Toilet Bowl And Die. Or is that the History Channel, I forget.

By my armchair scientific knowledge, Supervolcano is well based on the geology of Yellowstone (which *is* a supervolcano). This docu-drama's strength is the telling of the prelude, occurrence, and consequences of the super-eruption which has already happened three times at Yellowstone and will again someday. Geologists wrestle over what they know and what they don't. Scientists, reporters, and government wrestle with the politics and ethics of what to tell the public. FEMA wrestles with how to prepare for the eruption, how to aid the millions affected by it, and realizing how little they can do. The world slowly realizes that they, not just the U.S., are affected.The acting, by largely unknown actors, is solid. Nothing special, but this isn't a character development movie. The story is solid. Plot holes are few, and the only one that affects the science is minor. Production values are BBC-solid. Story, dialogue, and videography are restrained; the movie is blessedly free of Hollywood's gratuitous romance and melodrama, mindless heroism, and closeups of beautiful bodies. Good musical score. Special effects are low-budget but mostly effective, with one glaring exception: frequent intercut images, a fraction of a second each, accompanied by a loud electrical sizzle-snap. Most are negative (color-reversed) versions of what we just saw or are about to see. The intercuts are meant to heighten the tension, and they do, but only a handful of the hundreds of them aid the story. The rest are cheap yanks on our startle response.I have two other small beefs. First, the movie uses news clips of recovery from actual volcanic eruptions, showing places and people that clearly aren't in North America. Those briefly, jarringly broke my suspension of disbelief. Second, an aerial view of what was supposed to be post-eruption Yellowstone was an ordinary scene of mountain country. What could have been a potent visual was unconvincing and disappointing.Supervolcano focuses on the human consequences of the super-eruption, on how helpless we are against the power of nature, and does so grippingly. I would have liked more of the perspective -- which is mentioned only in passing -- that we are a minuscule part of the drama of creation, and that there is grandeur even in our own extinction. Still, Supervolcano is a powerful reminder to be humble about our place in the universe, a reminder we need regularly.Highly recommended.

OK..picture yourself with a battleship sized Hoover vacuum cleaner and you suck up all of the B and C actors on the planet into one cheesy movie. That would have to be SUPERVOLCANO. Perhaps if you were a vulcanologist, you would look past the horrible script and acting, and find the theoretical possibility of the event somewhat compelling, and be able to sit through it entranced with the science of it. For the rest of the human race, I can only say that it was laughably inept. I could almost see the director holding up queue cards behind the camera saying.."OK..BACK TO THE POUTY LOOK". I wont even attempt to give spoilers. There really is nothing to spoil. It's sort of Twister meets Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. SO, unless you are really fascinated with the prospect of Yosemite blowing up a wreaking havoc on the good old US of A, I'd give it a pass.

Not bad at all for a made-for-television disaster movie. Great not so famous cast with excellent acting. This movie depicts the events of an eruption of a supervolcano beneath Yellowstone Park. For those who don't know the difference between a volcano and a supervolcano - and missed the movie: A supervolcano is basically a huge hole in the ground, 30 to 50 miles wide, with a huge lava chamber under pressure, many many times larger than a typical volcano. No one alive has ever witnessed a supervolcanic eruption. The last one was TOBA in Sumatra about 80,000 years ago, which almost wiped out humans. A supervolcanic eruption would do to the planet what an asteroid would do if it were to strike earth. There's even some who believe all the earthquake activity in the Sumatra area may be the supervolcano there yawning and getting ready to wake up. Hmmm, a sequel movie? This was a great flick, fun to watch. Well made with special effects you might not expect in a TV movie. Way to go Discovery Channel!