I’ve always had a soft spot for disaster films, but they don't really come around very often these days. So when I noticed this one was available on Blu-ray, I figured I’d check it out. I was somewhat doubtful since it was made in China, but I have enjoyed movies from less common places before, like Bãhubali from India, so I decided to give it a try. They clearly have the resources to invest in their film industry these days. I ended up being very disappointed. The packaging claims this movie came from the same studio as Tomb Raider and The Expendables 2. If that's true, those people certainly didn’t have much influence on how it turned out; they probably just lent their names for publicity. Hollywood has been selling out to China lately, it seems. The acting is truly terrible—not just from the main cast but also I can’t help but wonder if they even gave any direction to the background performers or just told them to run around like fools. The storyline feels completely familiar and unoriginal. I was expecting that, but I hoped there would be at least a little something new. Some of the stunts are just ridiculous. Jumping between cable cars only five meters apart? Those tourists must have been professional athletes. You can’t drive that fast in reverse; it's simply not possible to control the vehicle, and the transmission wouldn’t allow it anyway. Apparently, surveillance drones in China are capable of destroying entire water stations. Then there’s the predictable scene where someone floats on something—in this case, a car—over flowing magma. Magma is between 700 and 1300 degrees hot; you can't float around on it without being instantly burned to ash. Also, I wonder why that water station had such a modern control room with computer panels, except for the massive lever like something out of Flash Gordon in the middle of the machine room—the one our amateur heroes just happened to need to flip. I didn't expect much from this film, but I was hoping at least the special effects would be good. Even those failed to impress me. A few were decent enough, but most were mediocre and some were really bad. The movie was so awful that I couldn’t bear to watch it without finding something else to do; I opened my laptop and started writing this review while the film played. It was a complete waste of time, honestly. I'm not planning on watching any more Chinese movies for a while. They certainly don't have the staying power of their viruses.

Source on TMDB