Movie Review: Sphere

I have missed out on a lot of movies and TV shows growing up because I didn't have cable until I moved out of the house at 18 and all my free time was spent reading. This has left me at a cultural disadvantage, something that drives my partner crazy, especially when I don't get the entertainment-related jokes he has so much fun telling. So, as of late, he has taken it upon himself to show me what it is I am missing and I figured that I would share this education with you.

We start with one of the creepiest alien movies I have ever seen: Sphere.

A quick overview of the beginning: the main character, Norman, played by Dustin Hoffman. He's a psychologist who specializes in the care of crash victims which is how they got the character to travel out into the middle of the ocean. To me, it seems a little unbelievable that they would fly him out to the crash site instead of sending the survivors to him, but the character believes it so I guess we will too.

That aside, he gets to the ship where he finds out not only was it a story to get him out there, but the military has assembled a team of people he knows well: Beth the marine biologist (Sharon Stone), Harry the Mathematician (Samuel L. Jackson), and Ted the physicist (Liev Schreiber).

That is when the whole team is informed that they found a 300-year-old spaceship at the bottom of the ocean and they think there is something living in it. They have assembled the team to make first contact.

Talk about pressure.

Not only do they have to deal with the fact that they are on the ocean floor, but they have to make nice with whatever they find in there. That's a lot to ask, but they handle it very well.

They get into the ship and find out it's not an alien ship, but an American-made spaceship from 2043.... that crashed 300 years ago.

Ummm... what? If that is too difficult to follow, the rest of the movie is really going to blow your mind.

Even though the spaceship is American-made, the living thing they find on the board is alien. It's definitely alive and moving, though is in the form of a sphere. (Note the name of the movie, surprise surprise.)

The picture does not do the sphere justice and it's really cool that it is constantly moving.

So naturally, after the team finds it, they want to get in and find out what it is all about. Harry seems to get inside the thing; a mental projection of him anyway, that knocks him out for a little while. The process is weird, it's like the sphere copies the person in front of it and sends the copy up to the top of the sphere.

It's an odd take on the idea which I appreciate for being unique, though vague. Then Norman goes into the sphere but doesn't get knocked out the way Harry does. By the end of the movie you barely even remember Norman had gone into the sphere, which is important, both the fact that he did and the fact that you forget.

Anyway so after that the crew in the underwater military living space starts to die because of weird underwater happenings; attack swarm of jellyfish, weird shredding eels.

While that's happening the crew starts talking to the sphere, the presumed alien, through their computers. The being types to them, saying his name is Jerry. Apparently they don't have to type back because once they had entered the sphere, it released the alien. Again, presumably.

No one thinks it's weird that Harry is asleep for all of these happenings.

The movie gets really weird and fires happen at random when Jerry gets angry. Everyone but Norman, Harry, and Beth die so by the end of the movie the three of them are running around either trying to get out or trying to keep the place from falling apart.

And by all of them, I really mean Beth and Norman because Harry is too busy reading 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, but not past page 80 something because it scares him. Because it talks about a giant squid that just so happens to be like the one that had attacked the station.

They figure out they need to get to the surface because for some reason all 3 of them had entered the sphere and it gave them powers they couldn't control, powers that made their ears come to life. They finally figure out 'Jerry' is Harry and they go through this long trippy sequence of trying to escape the underwater station.

That part... well you just have to watch it and see because I barely followed it while watching it, explaining it would be a nightmare. I kind of want to see the screenplay to see how they wrote that part.

They get back to the surface and end up on one of the military ships and they et put in holding to avoid them all getting the bends, and they discuss what they have been given.

This is the part I liked the best. It's like the Matrix; They have the power to be anything, do anything, make anything happen. The downside is that they are too human to either know they are doing it or cannot control what happens. If they could control it and use it for good, that would be the best gift anything could have given them. But because they are too human, too unaware, too emotional, they cannot do good with the gift. All they did was destroy each other and put themselves in danger, even after they figured out what they were running from was themselves.

The alien gave them ultimate power. Isn't that crazy? I love that idea. We always wonder if aliens do exist, will they come at us and try to destroy us or will they help us? I think this is the perfect example of a neutral alien. The one that tests us to see if we are the threat.

It has a great fresh concept (to me at least), great acting, and even 20 years later, the graphics hold up and aren't too hoaky. I really enjoyed the film and I would highly suggest it to anyone who likes SciFi movies.

I look forward to doing this again with the long list I have to look forward to. If you enjoyed my review, please like and tip so I can quit my job and write for a living!

Kidding.

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