The Crux of the Matter - A Review of SciFi's "The Triangle"

\n\nSix hours. That's the length of the SciFi Channel's mini-series \"The Triangle.\" Six hours is a really long time. Seriously. It's a major commitment. If you're anything like me, it may also involve alienating your spouse for three nights in a row because his/her tolerance for sci-fi related movies is much lower than yours. Since some of our favorite shows (\"Battlestar Galactica\" and \"Lost\") are on mid-season break, though, it's at least something to watch.\n \nI've read a few other reviews about the mini-series that also expressed that the six hours were too long. Four would have been better, they say. I'm not really sure about that. A significantly shorter movie would have resulted in even more contrived plot points to wrap things up sooner. If there's one thing I hate in my movies, it's that convenient \"deus ex machina\" moment where something unexplainable gets solved oh-so-simply with a few sweeping (and often confounding) words from a new character. This flick only had one significant moment like that - one that really struck me anyway. If the story had been shorter I think it would have happened at least once an hour, causing me - and everyone else - to abandon it the first night.\n \nThe story is about a \"ragtag\" (I swear... every time I read that word, all I hear in my head is Lorne Greene saying \"a ragtag fugitive fleet on a lonely quest... I shining planet, known as..\" but maybe that's just me) group of \"experts\" picked by eccentric billionaire and shipping magnate Eric Benirall, played by sci-fi/horror veteran Sam Neill, to uncover the mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle for \$5 million each. \n\nNow... here's the first part where you have to start \"working with\" the movie. You have to suspend some serious disbelief here. Our heros - a skeptical journalist (Eric Stoltz), a deep-sea engineer (Catherine Bell), an adventurer/meteorologist (Michael Rodgers) and a psychic (Bruce Davison) - are going to figure out the secret of the Triangle in roughly a weekend. Uh huh. Sure. It's an all or nothing deal so maybe they have more \"motivation\" to solve the riddle than anyone else in the last four hundred years. Fine. Why the urgency now you ask? Apparently the \"incidents\" of Benirall's ships disappearing are increasing. He doesn't like that.\n \nThe first two hours are pretty good. Establishing characters, watching the Greenpeace boat-wreck-survivor (Lou Diamond Phillips) go nutty, the building sexual tension between Bell's character and Rodgers' character, a dramatic plane crash and the subsequent SCUBA dive on the wreck - all good things. Not ground breaking, but still entertaining. The special effects were surprisingly well done. After watching many a low-budget SciFi original movie and their painfully obvious CGI landscapes, people and vehicles (e.g. anything with Lorenzo Lamas and a shark in it), you can really tell the ones the network throws its money at. I'm sure having heavy-hitting producers Bryan Singer (\"X-men\") and Dean Devlin (\"Independence Day\") didn't hurt.\n\nThen there were the next two hours - night two. Like many second acts of a work, this one just dragged on and on and on (and on and on). This is where I felt the movie's length the most. Not much really happens. The fantabulous four have come to the conclusion that the Triangle is causing temporal displacements - or really just messing with their heads collectively - and they need to figure out its source. (There's also some really confusing stuff about \"exotic matter\" but that's never really explained.)\n\nAll of this happens over such a long period of time that you definitely have the idea after the first (or really third) hour. It's here where you're wishing writer/producer Rockne S. O'Bannon had written another \"Farscape\" episode or mini-series instead - but I always wish that. I'd say the most \"interesting\" thing about these two hours is Phillips' character - who's not part of the \$5 million club - as he tries to figure out whether he's going crazy or if something outside of him is causing his family life to fluctuate between scenarios of wife with one kid, wife with two kids, and no wife no kids. Only in the last 15 minutes do we feel the action picking up again. Just in time to hook us for the third and final act, naturally.\n\nThe final two hours. We've got to wrap things up here, so things move very quickly. Sometimes too quickly and with too many \"scientific\" explanations that a DVR and a rewind button are required. Throughout the show we've learned of a significant military cover-up over whatever is going on in the Triangle. What are they protecting? Well, I won't exactly say 'cause that'd ruin the surprise for you, but I will say that this is where the \"god in the machine\" moment comes in - in the form of the Secretary of the Navy who explains everything. Whaaa? How? Who?? Eh. \n\nThe story is moving along so quickly now, we don't really have much time to object. All the action is building to what Navy guy calls the \"crux event\" - aka the probable end of the world. Don't worry folks, the U.S. military is on it. What could go wrong? After some time to clear their heads, our heros come to the shocking conclusion that the military might just be incorrect about a couple of things! (Cue dramatic music.) Our heros now must race the clock - and dimensions - to make sure the \"crux event\" doesn't turn out badly. (I wonder if a crux event has any relation to an \"event horizon\" - something Sam Neill should be very familiar with.)\n\nThe ending. Somewhat sappy with a moral lesson or two thrown in for flavor. Despite myself, I liked it. I don't go in for sap. I can't tell you what romantic comedy I watched last without a few glasses of wine to numb the pain. The ending here, though, was ok - at least as far as the characters are concerned. It more or less just strums the heart-strings as opposed to yanking on them. \"Logically\" (generous use of that word here), however, there are a \"couple\" of things that still don't add up. Ultimately, though, that's ok too. Regardless of the contrived theory used to explain the origin of the Triangle phenomenon, the concepts of time, space and matter were still interesting on a theoretical level.\n\nThis morning my husband asked me if the series was \"worthwhile.\" I wasn't sure how to answer that. Do I feel like I was robbed of 6 hours of my life that I'll never get back? No. Do I feel enriched for having watched it? No. Was it a relatively entertaining thing to watch while I await the return of my favorite shows? Yes. In that way, it was worth my while. With that said, I'm sure it was no accident that the SciFi Channel timed the airing of this series during the end-of-the-year lag when nothing else was on.\n\nAll three parts will re-air on Sunday afternoon, December 11th (opposite lots of football).