The Triangle (DVD)

The Triangle is a 3 part mini series, which was shown on the Sci-Fi Channel and then aired on BBC quite recently (end of May I believe). It is split into three parts: Night One, Night Two and Night Three. In total it has a running time of 4 hours as each part is around an hour and twenty minutes. I stumbled across this by accident when looking on my online rental website. I read the little blurb and thought it sounded good so added it. I really didn't ...
...scene set in 1492 in the Sargasso Sea in the South Atlantic. What appears to be a Spanish ship experiences some strange events. The sea is rough and then a large liner appears in view which is clearly not from that time. The crew of the ship are shocked and before they know it the liner has disappeared and some of the men vanish into thin air. This strange occurrence doesn't really make sense at the time but it makes you wonder what connection it ... more

The Triangle is a 3 part mini series, which was shown on the Sci-Fi Channel and then aired on BBC quite recently (end of May I believe). It is split into three parts: Night One, Night Two and Night Three. In total it has a running time of 4 hours as each part is around an hour and twenty minutes. I stumbled across this by accident when looking on my online rental website. I read the little blurb and thought it sounded good so added it. I really didn't know what to expect of it but I thought if it wasn't that good at least I've only rented it and not wasted any money on it.

***The Plot***

It all starts with a scene set in 1492 in the Sargasso Sea in the South Atlantic. What appears to be a Spanish ship experiences some strange events. The sea is rough and then a large liner appears in view which is clearly not from that time. The crew of the ship are shocked and before they know it the liner has disappeared and some of the men vanish into thin air. This strange occurrence doesn't really make sense at the time but it makes you wonder what connection it has when it goes back to the present time.

It then switches to present day in Miami, Florida. Again in the sea and a Greenpeace raft is trying to stop a whaling boat from harpooning a whale. Then something strange happens and the boat explodes and then causes the Greenpeace raft to capsize. Meeno Paloma (Lou Diamond Phillips), a member of the Greenpeace is the only survivor. When Meeno comes out of hospital things aren't as they were become. He returns home and some things are different. Like the colour of his truck and more significantly he has another son. This is very strange and this is only the beginning of strange events that is about to happen to Meeno.

Meanwhile Eric Benirall (Sam Neill) a billionaire who owns a shipping company is becoming more perplexed by his ships disappearing. They have all disappeared in the area otherwise known as the Bermuda Triangle and with no distress call and no adverse weather conditions. As he has the money he decides to try and get to the bottom of it by gathering a team of specialists to find out why his ships continue to go missing. The team he has gathered consists of a journalist, a psychic, a meteorologist and an oceanographer engineer. He offers them $5 million to uncover the truth and more bizarrely how one of his ships managed to survive and came back with 7 survivors and reported some very peculiar circumstances, including some of the remains being tested and testing positive for scurvy.

Intrigued? Want to know more? You'll have to see it for yourself. I've only outlined the first half an hour or so which sounds a lot but it isn't, bearing in mind the length of it all. This is all you really need to know to determine whether you'd like to watch it and without me spoiling it for you.

***The Cast***

Eric Stoltz -Howard Thomas (many might recognise him from The Butterfly Effect - the paedophile father)

Howard is a sceptical journalist who has actually reported on most 'survivors' of the Bermuda Triangle in the past, including Meeno. Out of the four he seems the most dubious about it all and I think he'd like to prove it doesn't exist. I found his surname fitting, as he is indeed a 'doubting Thomas'. Benirall wanted him for this very reason as he feels he can offer more to the group by questioning things. He is convinced from the word go that they are on a wild goose chase and finds the whole proposition ludicrous. His background is delved into a few times and we see how he is having family and financial problems. He is divorced from his wife although he is clearly still in love with her and can't let go and he would like to see her and his daughter more.

Catherine Bell - Emily Patterson (plays a small part in Bruce Almighty)

Emily is a Deep Ocean resource engineer who previously worked on an oil rig. She was fired for raising concerns about the safety though. She is highly educated and has several degrees. She is very focused and needs to have scientific evidence to back everything up. Again her background is looked into as with Thomas. She plays a strong character and by showing her personal life it shows that this could be a cover up for her insecurities.

Bruce Davison - Stan Lathem (plays Senator Kelly in X-Men and X-Men 2)

Stan is a psychic who has made it big but now he is reduced at trying his luck in the malls and psychic fairs. His expertise lay in finding lost children and his psychic ability helps the team in getting the investigation started. He becomes frustrated at the rest of the group not taking him seriously. They still need evidence even after they have seen mysterious happenings with their own eyes. He is the compassionate and caring member of the group. His background isn't really delved into and we know very little about his personal life.

Michael E. Rodgers - Bruce Geller

Bruce is an Australian Meteorologist professor who is also a bit of a daredevil. The first time we see him he is jumping out of a plane parachuting. He is money orientated and wants to find an answer as quick as possible so he can get his hands on the $5 million, even if it isn't strictly true. He even checks that the money Benirall has deposited in an offshore bank is really there straight after they leave Benirall. Once they start to get into the investigation and after experiencing The Bermuda Triangle he becomes deeply fascinated in under covering the truth behind what is going on.

Sam Neill - Eric Benirall (Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park)

There is more to Benirall than meets the eye. It is true that he has lost several ships in the Bermuda Triangle but as time goes by more about him is revealed. He is determined that his team find out what is going on and at all costs. He is a clear that he will only pay out the money if the mystery is solved when he says it's 'all or nothing'. This seems unfair but he is obviously serious about it all right from the beginning and he does fund the whole investigation.

Lou Diamond Phillips - Meeno Paloma

Meeno is the sole survivor of a Bermuda Triangle event in which afterwards his life wasn't as it was before. His family isn't the same and as time goes on things keep changing. He is clearly confused with all this and as his life keeps alternating he begins to wonder if he is going a bit mad or whether his memory has been effected. He is a quiet family man and he is upset about the death of his friends.

John Sloan - Aron Ackerman

Ackerman is Benirall's assistant. He doesn't have a huge part at all and his character could have been developed more. In fact if he weren't in it he wouldn't be missed as he only delivers the envelopes inviting them to Benirall's. Then he really only plays a part when the group are starting out as he helps them by giving them information on the Triangle.

The production team

Craig R. Baxley directs 'The Triangle'. He has also directed Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital, Rose Red and Storm Of The Century (all of which are mini series). Bryan Singer is the executive producer who is known for producing The Usual Suspects and being the executive producer for X-Men 2. Dean Delvin wrote the mini series, he was responsible for the likes of Independence Day and Godzilla. For those that know him from Farscape, Rockne S. O'Bannon was also involved in the writing side of things. With a production team like this it is no wonder that the visual effects were stunning.

***What I thought***

I did really enjoy this although at first I thought it was terrible. I thought from the first scene that it was going to be boring and I'd lose interest. I think a lot of that stemmed from me being confused at first as it was set in the past and where it was a Spanish ship there were subtitles. However, after introducing Meeno and then moving on to the main story line I was intrigued and wondered what would happen. Having seen it three times I can safely say that after the first viewing and seeing it again it does make more sense. Even at the end of the first viewing the beginning makes sense, as it doesn't seem to fit or be relevant.

The acting is really good and without such a strong cast I don't think this would have worked so well. No one in particular stands out from the rest though. Sam Neill plays his role of a rich businessman with a mysterious side to him. He isn't really in it a huge amount but there is a focus on him at the beginning. I also thought that Lou Diamond Phillips portrayed Meeno very well and his confusion is apparent throughout. Although his situation is looked at in a sub plot it all comes together at the end. The actual team are so dynamic and they all offer their different areas of expertise. I found it interesting how the lives of Howard and Emily are looked into and not Stan and Bruce. Obviously if they went into detail with them all it would have added even more time on to an already long mini series and viewers could become bored.

The actual story can be a bit unbelievable in some places and I can imagine this would put off a lot of people. I still enjoyed it though as after all it is a sci-fi so they're not going to make it all believable. There are so many twists and turns and strange occurrences that it is always fast paced and something is always happening. There are so many incidences that I'd love to point out but this would ruin it for anyone who does want to see it for themselves. One thing that does happen near the beginning is a bizarre plane crash. I won't elaborate but it kept me interested enough. There are so many unexplainable events that it makes you think and wonder what it is all about. Can what they are experiencing be explained? Is there a scientific reason behind it or is there more to it?

The special effects are phenomenal and considering it was made on a small budget for television, I was amazed. There are many scenes where the weather is far from calm and these were created digitally as well as many under water shots. The opening scene with the fifteenth century ship and the huge liner was also one of note. However, this was not the most spectacular one. As the mini series progresses and there is more action they become bigger and mostly better. One that springs to mind is a bridge scene. I was not surprised to learn that there are over 800 digital effects, which was twice more than X-Men 2.

The end was rather confusing and only after thinking about it I started to understand why it was done in this way. There are some unanswered questions and different ways that you could possibly interpret things but they could have done that for that very reason. I felt that they could have gone into more depth. However, as I mentioned after seeing it again it made more sense.

It is hard to compare this to anything to anything else I have seen but those who like the X Files or even Quantum Leap would enjoy this as would all sci-fi fans and those who enjoy a mystery. I did read somewhere someone claiming it was like Lost, although I can't see why they thought that. Having said that I love Lost so maybe there is something in it. I would recommend this highly even though I was dubious to begin with.

***Extras***

First of all there is a 20 minute documentary called 'Sci Fi Inside: The Triangle'. This is obviously a feature the Sci-Fi Channel do on most their productions. It was obvious where all the commercials would have been. It gives an overview to why Devlin and Singer thought about doing 'The Triangle' and why they decided to do it as a mini series rather than as a film. Lou Diamond Phillips mostly introduces it. However, most the cast and many of the makers have something to say in it. For example, Sam Neill talks about his character Benirall. A brief look is made at how they made the visual effects and a mention of how the water scenes were challenging to the production crew. Personally I would have liked to see more on this and less on what the actors thought of their characters. I felt that they could have spent more time looking at these as they only gave a small taster.

Then there are interviews with Bryan Singer, Dean Devlin, Eric Stoltz, Catherine Bell, Lou Diamond Phillips and Sam Neill. The first interview with Singer started off really well and on screen it came up with questions or topics such as 'Working with Dean Devlin?' This particular interview went on for 15 minutes and I thought all of them were going to be as in-depth as this one. I was wrong though and the Singer interview was by far the longest and the others ranged from 2 and a half minutes and 5 minutes. So I was disappointed there too. Also they never interviewed Michael Rodgers and Bruce Davison. They could have easily have done a short one with them as well surely?

Although the interview with Singer does give some interesting information it is done with in a rather amateurish way and doesn't flow all that well. It would have been better if they'd just had him talking non-stop or actually shown the interviewer ask the questions rather than stick the question or topic he is discussing before hand. The extras look like they have been thrown together at the last minute rather than done specifically for the DVD. This is a shame as they could have been so much better.

Not convinced? Well you can watch the first 10 minutes at http://tv.yahoo.com/feature/thetriangle.html

Currently available as low as £7.49 at thehut.com and as always available on eBay. It is also available on Amazon with 33% off at the moment at £13.89 but it is much more expensive than other places. 

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