Solar Attack (2006) (aka: Solar Strike) starring Mark Dacascos, Joanne Kelly, Kevin Jubinville, Sugith Varughese, Craig Eldridge, Stephen McHattie, Louis Gossett Jr. directed by Paul Ziller Movie Review

Solar Attack (2006)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Mark Dacascos in Solar Attack (2006) (aka: Solar Strike)

Attack of the Solar Struggles

As a fan of bad movies, those types of movies which work on a simple entertainment value I usually find myself at odds with other movie critics when it comes to these made for TV sci-fi disaster movies because whilst seriously flawed they still often entertain for being cheesy. But sometimes I just can't find anything to defend one of these movies with and "Solar Attack" is one of these movies which whilst not abysmal is dull and never brings the cheesy side which would have made it entertaining.

Millionaire scientist Lucas Foster (Mark Dacascos) is heading up a project to investigate greenhouse gasses to work out why the planet is heating up. But his project goes wrong when the probe piloted by Joe (Tim Post) gets incinerated by some sort of solar flare. Discovering that the scientists at SNEL including his friend Joanna (Joanne Kelly) have tracked some CME (Coronal Mass Ejections) they soon realise that Earth may be in danger of these CMEs creating a solar attack.

Louis Gossett Jr. in Solar Attack (2006) (aka: Solar Strike)

So as I said "Solar Attack" which is also known as "Solar Strike" is one of these made for TV, sci-fi disaster movies where something happens in space which scientists become aware of and have to try and save the day or see planet Earth go up in smoke. Now the science in these movies always feels far fetched even for someone scientifically ignorant and not just on the subject of solar flares and so on but in the case of "Solar Attack" it simply feels hokey and not exciting hokey either. But the writers are not happy just to give us danger in the skies but also take us below the waves with a submarine communication issue as well which in any other movie would have been an amusingly ridiculous addition but here is simply dull.

To put it simply "Solar Attack" is dull, it is its biggest problem and comes from uninteresting characters, wooden performances and for most of the first hour people staring at computer screens and talking a lot of gibberish in an attempt to come across as if they know things. It throws in a couple of special effects here and there but these are only to the typical standard of TV movie CGI which fail to induce any excitement. Eventually it does try to bring some excitement but by the time it does it is far too late as it will have lost most people long before it gets there.

The only positives I can find are the performances from two actors with Stephen McHattie and Louis Gossett Jr. in minor roles showing how to make their characters at least a little interesting. But in turn this just highlights the stiffness of the main cast who frankly are a big reason why "Solar Attack" struggles.

What this all boils down to is that "Solar Attack" is simply dull with no real excitement and never embracing the corny side to make it entertainingly bad which is in truth the reason why most would want to watch this.


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