The Sydney Australia authenticity stunned me!

The mountains that are supposed to be in Sydney are actually Cape Town, South Africa. Hence they had part of the sun meteor heading to the African continent, then they cut to a prison van somewhere in Australia being hit by the same meteor. I guess the producers figured that Americans can't tell Africa apart from Australia?

Well... the Americans saved the world in just about every other disaster movie. Perhaps the producers decided that if they set this one in Australia, they would appear a little less insular.

Um... it didn't work!

*Those without a sense of humour are at the mercy of the rest of us*

We watched for a while before we realised that it wasn't Sydney, it was Capetown and the movie was actually set there. That explains why there were so many black people in 'Sydney', why the paper money was not Australian, why the number plates on all the vehicles were not Aussie and why one of the bad guys had such a weird accent.
Other clues - a quick glimpse of a building with a Dutch name and several long shots over the blasted city showing Table Mountain clearly as a background.
Also, when one of the plasma blasts was heading for Earth they showed a map of the world with the stuff hitting South Africa. And they said that there were three Phoenix shelters in the world, in th US, Africa and somewhere else not Australia.
The credits featured many South African names and clearly stated the movie had been filmed on location in South Sfrica.
Why then the stupid attempt to make it seem Aussie? Even the shots they used of Sydeny were ancient. It wasn't bad research, it was just a con job and a very bad one at that.
Was Channel 7 trying to pull a swifty with some bad editing or was it actually the way the thing was made?
I usually love Hallmark movies but this one was a real stinker.
So predictable - we were able to say what would happen well before it actually did fro just about everything. And way too long.

And there was me worrying about small continuity errors, like Mr Perry putting his seatbelt on in one shot, then being pulled out of the car in the next one, no seatbelt in evidence.

tbh, I completely hadn't picked up on the fact it was supposed to be set in Australia. I think it was the lack of australians that misled me. It is really really bad. I have no idea why we are watching it.

Holy sweet God. I've been watching this abomination on New Zealand TV for the last hour and a half now. I can't think of a single good thing to say about it. The acting is horrible. The story ridiculous (OK, so Peter Fonda is a Nobel prize winner? Que? Couldn't they get someone more realitic for the role, like maybe Carrot Top or Pauly Shore? And Luke "Mr. Wrinkly Forehead 90210" Perry is a fellow scientist? Whaaa?)

The accents are terrible (is it Australian? African? American? Russian? French? Your guess is as good as mine, but I ticked 'none of the above') and the special effects terrible. TERRIBLE. Could they at least have attempted to make the helicopters look less like plastic toys? The CGI looks like it was made on a Fisher-Price kid's PC: the opening sequence and solar flares are laughable. I especially liked the 'scientists getting into a helicopter and taking off sequence'. Real helicopters have these blade thingies that spin around real fast, which generate something called turbulence (or 'wind'), which would move the clothes and hair of the people as they hop aboard. Apparently not scientists though, as the air was completely still as they climbed in with all doors open. One of the female scientists (the one with the French accent that nearly made me spit up the 7-Up I was drinking when she opened her mouth and spoke) was even casually rearranging her long hair! And the take-off was an especially cunning effect: slowly lower the camera a bit. Awesome.

The big plan devised by the Big Bad Government Agency Types is to hide out in several underground bunkers and just ride out the supernova. Just to clarify, that's to 'ride out the supernova'. A SUPERNOVA. RIDE IT OUT. Yeah, like you might stuff a single sheet of tissue paper down your shirt to protect yourself from a point-blank shotgun blast to the chest. Yeah that'll work! I guess the whole 'destroys everything' bit was something they missed (even though it's shown in the OPENING CREDITS as various planets are blown to tiny pieces by said astrophysical phoenomenon!)

This was on free-to-air TV, but I still want to get my money back; and to have the psychological counselling I will undoubtedly need paid for.