I was really pleased back in 1998 when it was announced that the Michael Crichton novel Sphere was being filmed as it's my favorite of his large catalogue of science fiction stories. In films Crichton had been a player since the 70's (Westworld / Coma) and 80's (Looker / Runaway) but it wasn't until 1993's Jurassic Park that the rights to his work were heavily in demand. Sphere was greenlit on the back of hits like The Lost World, Disclosure, Twister, Rising Sun, Congo and of course the long running TV series E.R. but it ranks alongside Timeline and The 13th Warrior as adaptations that don't quite work.
I like Sphere as it's a very hard sci-fi story. It all takes place within a high tech research station at the bottom of the ocean and less interesting topics like biology and family are replaced by maths, astrophysics and smart scientists talking smart things. No namby pamby, tree hugging crap here. It's also a great mystery which is gradually unwrapped like the layers of an onion; just as you think you've got a grasp of what's going on a revelation makes you reassess. I also love the way that a topic like magic is juxtaposed through the eyes and experience of scientists, much like Carpenter Did with Prince Of Darkness a decade earlier.
The cast are top of the line with Dustin Hoffman Sam Jackson and Sharon Stone getting great support from Liev Schrieber and Peter Coyote...all argumentative and slightly arrogant ensuring the group interactions are never dull. The effects are pretty good, the score evokes the feeling of a classic monster movie and the photography and set design as as good as you'd expect from the likes of masters Adan Greenberg and Norman Reynolds respectively. If there's a weak link it's director Barry 'Rain Man' Levinson who doesn't successfully translate the scientific concepts cinematically, or structure the story in a way that makes the revelations more astounding.
A solid movie that you can't help but thing could be better with a different man at the helm.
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