The Quake

The Norwegian "Skjelvet", a.k.a. "The Quake", is an overrated disaster movie. The special effects are indeed stunning and worthwhile watching, but the predictable storyline and characters are disappointing. Kristian Eikjord is unpleasant and strange and most of the characters have stupid attitudes. The abrupt conclusion is weak. My vote is five. Title (Brazil): Not Available

You watch and can't help wondering why Norwegians never believe it when a natural disaster is coming. Especially the ones who's actual job it is to monitor those things. Their lackadaisical attitude to impending disaster in both films was so astounding that you can't believe people can be this stupid. And the idiot son who was too scared to swim in the prequel is back, and ignores his father's text warning to leave the building in this part making him even dumber than he was in part 1. That aside, the earthquake scenes were great, but it's sad that they have to depict Norwegians as too stupid to live in order to move the plot along. 5 stars for the earthquake scenes.

The prequel of this movie was The Wave (Bolgen) and was slightly better than The Quake (Skjelvet), but I still rate it the same because there are some moments of suspense towards the end even though it were also those same moments that were annoying at some point. Annoying because of the characters having a little chat or emotional moments while the only thing they had to think about was trying to escape death and disaster. It just didn't make any sense and therefor it brings the ratings down. The actors were the same as in The Wave but again I thought they did a better job in the prequel, maybe due to the story telling this time. But if you like disaster movies it's worth watching once. To me it could have been much better if there were more disastrous moments and lesser emotional moments. When you fight for your life there is just no time for sentiments.

I expected this movie to be better than the first one, The Wave, but I was very disappointed. Most of the movie is boring family drama. Like many other disaster movies, it has a kid who runs away and doesn't do as she's told, which creates even more drama. The buildup to the disaster took too long and when it first started, it was over too fast. There were also a lot of unanswered questions about the storyline. I really wanted this movie to be good and I really thought it would be, because of all the hype and all the positive critics reviews, but I was bored most of the movie.