underwater science fiction stays submerged sphere a film review by michael redman copyright 1998 by michael redman <NEG> one of the most unpleasant experiences </NEG> that can occur in a movie theater is when a cast of fine actors end up in a film that <NEG> wastes their talents </NEG> . you keep thinking what they might have accomplished with the time they squandered . psychologist norman goodman ( dustin hoffman ) is called to the middle of the pacific ocean to work with the survivors of a plane crash . when he arrives at the site , he discovers that there is no plane , but rather an enormous spacecraft that has been sitting 1 , 000 feet below the surface for almost 300 years . having written a paper for the bush administration on how to handle first contact , he is chosen to head up the team of scientists investigating the ship . his group as outlined in his report , consists of beth halperin ( sharon stone ) , a biochemist ; harry adams ( samuel l . jackson ) , a mathematician ; and ted fielding ( liev schreiber ) , an astrophysicist . unfortunately it turns out that the writing was a blow-off project for goodman who did it for the money and named his then-colleagues to the team . " after all , " he explains , " who reads government documents ? " lead by harold barnes ( peter coyote ) , a top secret federal operative , the group descends to a mobile undersea headquarters set up next to the alien vessel . once there they stroll over , knock on the door and explore the still-operational ufo . discovering the surprising origin of the ship and the crew finds an astonishing gigantic golden liquid metal sphere . when adams enters the sphere , the weirdness unfolds . a storm rolls in on the surface and the team is forced to remain below just as an unseen presence begins to communicate through their computer . " my name is jerry . i am happy " flashes across the screen . this is unsettling for the psychologist . " what happens if jerry gets mad ? " he asks . barnes is more pragmatic : he needs a last name because he can't put in his report that they made contact with an alien named jerry . then the situation turns bad . deadly beasts appear from nowhere . a gang of jellyfish kills one of the navy personnel . lethal sea snakes attack goodman . a giant squid batters the habitat just as adams is reading " 20 , 000 leagues under the sea " . the suspicious scientists turn against each other . this has all the makings of a first-rate thinking man's science fiction film . however even the finest ingredients don't go very far in the hands of a chief who doesn't seem to care about his product . director barry levinson has <NEG> churned out a mish-mosh that doesn't engage the audience </NEG> beyond a few skillful suspense scenes . the first of the film zooms by as the situation and players are <NEG> introduced without any characterization or justification </NEG> . it's much like speed-reading a novel and realizing that you missed the nuances . it doesn't get any better when the action scenes begin . while the actors do an adequate job with their <NEG> limited roles </NEG> , the people are <NEG> still flat </NEG> . oddly they hardly have reactions when deaths occur around them . after adams experiences the interior of the sphere , no one bothers to ask him what happened . their history together is an intriguing plot device <NEG> but is barely exploited </NEG> . even goodman and halperin's ill-conceived affair when she was his student is just mentioned in passing . her psychotic tendencies are talked about but <NEG> never convincing </NEG> . there's a truism that items shown early in a movie must be used before the ending , but here they are <NEG> far too obvious </NEG> . when an emergency mini-sub is explained , you know what's going to happen . the movie affectations are <NEG> nothing more than distracting </NEG> . chapter headings that divide the movie have no function . <NEG> the shaky camera work muddies already perplexing chaos . much of what goes on is confusing and difficult to follow </NEG> . although some of the disorientation eventually is understandable , a great deal of it isn't . even a science fiction film must be internally consistent . <NEG> there's too much here that doesn't make sense </NEG> . are the manifestations real ? the jellyfish kill queen latifa ( in a throw-away role ) and the squid nearly destroys the outpost , but the bites of the fatal snakes have no effect . a scene in the sub suggests that it's illusion , but earlier episodes indicate that it's not . not everything has to be explained to death , but <NEG> there are major questions that the film never answers </NEG> . where the ship came from is clarified , but how it ended up on the ocean floor in 1709 is merely alluded to . even the enigmatic sphere is still mysterious when the credits roll . the climax is followed by 15 minutes of epilogue that <NEG> does little but weaken the already labored tale </NEG> . after pre-release audience testing , the actors were called back to re-shoot the ending . it's difficult to imagine how the original could have been worse . following the recent tradition of lengthy films , <NEG> this weighs in at over two very long hours . the weak scenes could have been cut </NEG> , but then there wouldn't have been much left . the movie was supposedly held up by effects work , but there's nothing special on the screen . we never even see the monstrous squid or the menacing storm . <NEG> stealing from </NEG> " alien " , " the abyss " and the disastrous " event horizon " , this film <NEG> has learned nothing from them </NEG> . remarkably levinson and hoffman's other currently showing film is " wag the dog " , a smart and entertaining piece of work . this one could have been titled the same sans one word .
