I get it; he got screwed over by the article. But he needs to grow up, stop blaming everyone else, and get on with his work. Nothing is more unattractive than those who play the victim, and there has never been more of a victim, at least in his eyes, than this guy. “I felt like the whole world was against me. Everything bad was happening while my life was falling apart,” he whines.
The geologist’s view of himself, as well as the movie’s opinion of him, is as some sort of savior of humankind. There is an especially obnoxious moment about halfway into the film when it lost me entirely. The geologist relays how at one point, because of the article, he received unspecified violent threats. The graphic shown underneath the narration is that of nails being hammered into what is presumably a cross. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Was Crucifixion Quake actually comparing this man’s plight to that of Jesus Christ?
“…can’t recall a time in a movie…when there has been such an unappealing, self-aggrandizing egoist at the center.”
The documentary is divided into three parts: The Past, The Present, and The Future. The Future portion is by far the most interesting since it is the section that most closely resembles the solving of a mystery. In this third, the movie generates the sort of intrigue that it should have been cultivating all along. However, with this repellent guide, coupled with so many scenes of him gazing out across the land, driving, or splashing slow motion water on his face, the film sabotages the allure of its central mystery by substituting style and an intolerable protagonist in place of genuinely riveting content.
The movie bites off more than it can chew when it dives into seemingly unnecessary asides concerning the nature of philosophy. Still, Crucifixion Quake admirably addresses the difficult yet eternal conflict between faith and science and whether or not one school has any material effect on the other. Yet, if faith has anything to do with it, then I have faith that when the filmmakers decide to produce a follow-up, they will find a better narrator.
"…the geologist's view of himself...is as some sort of savior of humankind."
