Tianhuo Island is as deadly as it is gorgeous. Unfortunately, a group of unsuspecting tourists and some suspecting scientists find this out the hard way in Skyfire. Tianhuo is part of the ‘Ring of Fire’ – the Pacific Rim volcanic belt. Wentao Li (Xueqi Wang) knows the dangers of Tianhuo better than everyone having experienced a volcanic eruption firsthand. This same volcanic eruption claimed the life of his wife. Luckily his daughter Meng (Bee Rogers) and himself made it off of Tianhuo before any more damage was done. Wentao has sworn to never return to Tianhuo, but life often manages to throw a wrench into plans.
Twenty years later Meng (Hannah Quinlivan) has returned to Tianhuo to carry out her mother’s legacy. Jack Harris (Jason Isaacs) has the bright idea to build a resort/theme park on Tianhuo. He is catering to the extreme tourism crowd and will be shuttling people into the heart of the volcano. He has hired a team of Volcanologists to study the volcano and provide any useful information (which he chooses to ignore anyways). Meng has invented a system called Zhuque to give in-depth readings of the volcano and predict volcanic activities. Meng hopes to use Zhuque to save lives – problem is it kind of works, but not really. Wentao races to Tianhuo to try and save his daughter from the same fate as her mother.
West tries to mix things up with some artsy underwater shots and slow motion being randomly inserted. Most of these instances either fall flat, or just seem grossly out of place. Visuals are typically one of the highlights of natural disaster films and arguably one of their most important aspects. The graphics in Skyfire may not be top notch, but they are certainly passable. The biggest issues are the script and death-defying sequences, not the way Skyfire looks. Skyfire is the first Chinese “Hollywood-level” blockbuster in the action-adventure realm. West uses an expanded budget wisely, trying to make Skyfire as visually appealing as possible. All-in-all Skyfire isn’t terrible. It’s a middle of the road action-adventure. If you want to embrace the absurd and turn your brain off, there are far worse options out there. If you are looking for a mindless and forgettable popcorn flick, Skyfire will suffice.