MOVIE REVIEW : ‘Ring of Fire’ Burns Up the Screen at Fleet

SAN DIEGO — “Ring of Fire” does what Omnimax films are supposed to do.

It blows away the audience. The scope and power of the images that fill the huge domed screen push them back in their seats, producing expressions of awe and wonder.

Thirteen years in the making, “Ring of Fire”--which opens Saturday at the Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater--explores the origins, power and myths of volcanoes, the tumultuous forces that cause earthquakes and shape the Earth’s surface. It is a tour through hell on Earth, a close-up view of the bubbling caldrons that dot the planet’s landscape.

But some of the film’s best scenes are only indirectly related to volcanoes.

Instead of simply introducing the audience to San Francisco, “Ring of Fire” flies viewers above the Golden Gate Bridge in a helicopter and then sweeps them over the skyscrapers, providing a fish-eye view from directly above the huge towers. It’s an aerial roller coaster ride.

Sure, these types of films are meant to be educational, and that’s why space theaters such as the Fleet finance the productions. But, first and foremost, the value of the big-screen format is its ability to dazzle, to grab the audience’s attention while slipping them the educational message.

Omnimax films succeed best when they take the audience to places they can only dream about, places that can be fearsome as well as beautiful. For example, spectacular footage shot during space shuttle missions has provided the Omnimax theaters with some of their most successful films, particularly “The Dream Is Alive.”

From the opening sequence, “Ring of Fire” grips the audience and takes it to the world of volcanoes. A slow rumble builds and envelops the darkened theater while scenes of boiling lava fill the screen.

“Our Earth was born of fire,” narrator Robert Foxworth says in a deep, ominous voice.

At its core, the film explores the hows and whys of volcanoes, but it’s not presented in the form of a geology lesson. Cameras under the direction of George Casey of the Hollywood-based Graphic Films traveled to volcanoes around the world, photographing not only eruptions, but the people who interact with the volcanoes on a daily basis, places where “paradise and catastrophe go hand in hand.”

The people of San Francisco who live with the omnipresent danger of earthquakes, caused by the same forces that create volcanoes, are viewed with the same awe as the people who live below Sakurajima, an active volcano in Japan. In other words, the viewer may wonder about the sanity of people in Japan who regularly are evacuated because of eruptions, but they are shown to be no more crazy than people living on the San Andreas fault. In fact, the film pays tribute to the spirit of people who live around the volcanoes, which play a key role in the Earth’s ecosystem.

This tone of respect and the care taken with each visual image make the film work. Computer animation sequences, usually a sure-fire way to slow the pace of a film, help spice up “Ring of Fire” even more, in particular a blue model of the Earth used to illustrate the actual “Ring of Fire,” the ring of hot spots around the planet.

Through such sequences, “Ring of Fire” manages to succeed on an educational level. It’s a primer course on the forces of nature that shape the planet. However, the fact that it manages to present the message in such an entertaining form makes it appealing for adults as well as students.

Beginning Saturday, “Ring of Fire” will screen daily from 10 a.m.-8 p.m. weekends and 1-8 p.m. weekdays through the end of the summer. Admission is $5.50 for adults, $4 for seniors, $3 for juniors. Each ticket includes admission to the science center. For show times and other information, call the theater at 238-1168.