Even if a movie is bad, usually disaster or creature movies, you can still see if you get any entertainment value even if unintentional. There are movies out there that are not believable for a second and are too inept to really enjoy or get sucked in, and Lava Storm is one of them and of the worst kind. Visually Lava Storm is very choppy especially in the editing and the drab look of the production is not appealing at all. Likewise with the substandard at best special effects, the worst of them are an insult to the term amateurish. Yes, it is low budget but that doesn't excuse the quality being as poor as it is here. The music has no energy or intensity, it's completely lifeless with sluggish tempos, intrusive orchestration and misplacement (parts having music that jars with the mood) throughout. The direction is sloppy with no character or enthusiasm, not sure whether to put it down to inexperience or just plain amateurism and lack of enthusiasm. The acting is universally bad, especially from Ian Ziering who is wooden and annoying. Vlasta Vrana has been decent before but here gives a performance that is one-note and with no subtlety of any kind. The characters range from obnoxious to cardboard ciphers complete with relationships between them being constantly forced and awkwardly played, at no point do we relate to them and we end up being infuriated with them instead due to the stupid things and decisions they do and make. The writing is the worst culprit here, the dialogue is stiff, underwritten and cheesy as well as delivered to the extent that you can't take it seriously. In short the script is so bad that it makes the toes curl, some of the worst dialogue I've heard in a while. The story falls into ridiculousness (with continuity errors and holes so numerous it'd fill a book equalling the length of the longest Stephen King novel) and ham-fisted melodrama far too much and has a complete lack of suspense and thrills. Don't expect to be entertained, moved or biting your nails, you won't find any of that in Lava Storm, any emotions you'll most likely have are annoyance and anger. The constant going-through-the-motions quality in the production and performances is a major part of why, nobody seems to be aware or bothered about what's happening to them, if they have that whatever quality to them the viewer will certainly be like that too. To conclude, Lava Storm was truly atrocious with not one shred of a redeeming quality, and this is coming from somebody who nearly always look out for and points out redeeming qualities in bad movies. 1/10 Bethany Cox
