In other words,volcanoes gonna volcano,people. If anyone’s to blame,it’s Mother Nature.

There’s much to admire in the way this film captures the beauty of New Zealand,the sense of excitement as the tourists step onto the island for the first time,the way this simmering giant is embedded in the local culture and economy. Footage captured on the day hints at the terror to come,with the steam seeming to grow more dense,the water of the lake more opaque as ash settles and obscures what is meant to be an electric blue surface.

Mobile phone footage even captures the emergence of a dark pillar of cloud,looking,one witness says,like one of Harry Potter’s feared Dementors,that soon blocks out the sky entirely. “It was the darkest thing I’ve ever seen in my life,darker than any night,just pitch black,” says Matt Urey. “It was the most terrifying two minutes of my life.”

The talking heads are well chosen,giving us the perspective of those who were there,of those who came to the rescue,of those who have been in various ways traumatised by what happened that day.

The Volcano does a great job of capturing those two minutes of terror,and the lifetime of pain that many will have to endure as a result. But a tragedy doesn’t always need someone to blame;had the film just resisted the urge to look for a scapegoat,it would have been that much better.

The Volcano:Escape From Whakaari is on Netflix from December 16.

Email the author atkquinn@theage.com.au,or follow him on Facebook at karlquinnjournalist and on Twitter@karlkwin.

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