What was your first thought when you saw the title of this article? Was it ‘How could a movie called Airplane Vs. Volcano actually exist?’, or, ‘Has the LC Howler finally started putting out fake news?’. But I assure you, Airplane Vs. Volcano is a real movie, and it is BAD.

  Airplane Vs. Volcano was made by a studio called The Asylum, and normally I wouldn’t mention the studio behind a movie, but this is a special case. Because the special thing about The Asylum is that they deal almost exclusively in ‘mockbuster’ films. These are basically just ripoffs of other popular films that can be made super quick and cheaply thanks to the fact they use things like poor CGI, actors barely out of community theater, and few sets. The Asylum has made countless films in this style, such as Atlantic Rim, Snakes on a Train, and Transmorphers. They have also made the Sharknado movies, and that appears to be the kind of movies they want to make now, where they realize how stupid the core concept is and just run with it anyway.

  Unfortunately, that is not what Airplane Vs. Volcano is. It styles itself in the same vein as the torrent of disaster and end-of-the-world movies we were getting several years ago; Think 2012 and The Day After Tomorrow. With such a ridiculous title like Airplane Vs. Volcano, you would think that this would be a send-up of sorts, a self-aware movie about how ridiculous these disaster movies are, but no, this movie takes itself way too seriously.

  I would like this movie a lot more if it was self aware and had better production values, but the movie is just trying to be a serious, melodramatic, disaster movie that tries to make us feel for all these people in danger. Oh, I just realized, I haven’t described the plot!

  Basically an one airliner is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean when every volcano in the Pacific erupts at once, trapping the plane in a giant ash could they can’t fly out of, along with damaging some of the plane’s systems. The passengers on the plane must now survive until help can arrive.

  The plot is pretty dumb, but I don’t mind because its so dumb that it’s pretty hilarious and enjoyable.

  My main ire with the movie is the acting. You can tell a lot of these actors are amateur, and it shows so much it is distracting from all the other horribleness. They all give really cliche performances; there’s the scientist, the law enforcement guy, the everyman hero, the lady figure who falls in love with the everyman over the course of the movie, etc.

  However, this doesn’t prevent me from enjoying the movie. It’s a pain to get through the scenes where they are trying to tug at your heartstrings by killing off a character or having a moment of development for a main character, but when it gets back to the stupid stuff, like having the airplane fly across stock footage, the movie becomes a thoroughly enjoyable ‘so-bad it’s-good’ affair.

  Overall, I would give Airplane Vs. Volcano 4 howls out of 10; A movie that could have used some more self-awareness and better actors, but has some redeeming qualities thanks to some unintentionally hilarious action scenes and dialogue, making it a solid good-bad movie.