★★★★★ 0/5

First Review: Super Comet

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Where the hell is Bruce Willis when we need him?

He’s needed to save us from the Super Comet, both the meteor, and very arguably the docudrama too.

Docudramas are always tricky beasts. Trying to combine both factual info with re-enactments is no fun, and this hypothetical made by Discovery Channel isn’t exactly top of the heap.

The acting is pretty shoddy, the cliches abound -but the subject matter is just so darn spellbinding it’s likely to keep you watching ’til the end anyway. And frankly there have been Hallmark telemovies achingly worse.

The future story proposed by this doco is that a gigantic meteor is hurdling towards Earth, in the same way as the one that obliterated our dinosaurs centuries before. That’s big trouble everywhere from little China to Paris. Actors enact domestic situations that respond to doomsday news services. Families panic-buy groceries, they clog the freeways trying to run (where to?) and continually look to the skies. In rainforest jungles tribesmen (complete with grass skirts!) have no idea of what’s coming.

Intercut are scientists, presumably real ones, trying to shoot the meteorite with an Armageddon-like bullet, to no avail. Their acting is lousy, but it’s interesting hearing them detail how we would slowly disintegrate from the effects of a deep impact. Mexico disappears, Paris burns, New York is flooded. There are earthquakes, tidal waves, the earth burning under 400 degree celsius temperatures, an electromagnetic wave, it’s CGI chaos!

In much the same way as SuperVolcano was a cheap thrill ride, you will need to check your brain at the door to enjoy this disaster doco too. Pack some baked beans and start getting very, very frightened!

Super Comet airs 8:35 pm Sunday on SBS. Part 2 airs Monday night.

Photo: Deep Impact.

6 Responses

  1. I belive this is very real..and will happen some time soon maybe not in 2012 but the earth is warming up..the rain is here..the earth is moving faster..and we are not ready for this…and we should show more on tv about it like the super comet..not war…we have to much to lose…sbs2..was good.the other nite…we need to get it out there…the earth is burning…our water is low…the fish..will be all gone soon..stop all this killing..we use way to much…greed…lets get back to the way we where in the 70s…love..peace…

  3. What a tragic end-of-year run for public TV in this country. First we get the ABC inflicting the god-awful Secrets Of The Beatles non-documentary on us (“The Beatles have always guarded the use of their songs in documentaries with an iron first, and we weren’t allowed to use their music in ours… oh and we heard from a guy that knew a guy that talked to a retired concierge that knew a guy who said that John Lennon was having it off with Brian Epstein”) and now SBS gives us the latest in a long line of silly “what if the world ended” non-docos.

    Ah well, guess it’s an improvement on their usual Nazi Week 🙂

  4. Not yet, no, only:
    JK Rowling – Harry Potter & Me
    Friday 18th Jan at 7.30pm Ovation.

    FYI: Nathan there is a TV Lounge in the menu in the RHS column for general or questions that don’t pertain to a specific post. Thanks.

  5. I dont know where else to ask this, so I shall ask it here.

    The UK will be airing “JK Rowling… A Year in the Life” at the end of this month. Will free to air Australian TV get the show here? Will it ever be shown on Australian television?

    It looks interesting and I want to watch it.

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