I appreciate the budget restraints, but the fim is very average regardless. Basically 2 guys chasing each other round the desert for the whole fim. With some pretty cheesy macho dialogue. Crature designs werent bad, but pretty standard and unimaginative. Also who was the protagonist? The Human or The alien, neither was particually a good or a bad guy, so it's hard to really care for a character.
It had a couple of neat touches, but this film will go nowhere .
The ending of this film really messed me up. I don't mean that in a good way. I mean, why did it end the way it did? What was Clea's plan? Why did Jericho just sit there at the hatchway? Why did Centauri 7 flip at the end? Near the end, almost from scene to scene, it seems like he can't decide whether to kill or to assist Jericho. The whole thing seemed very muddled.
The cleverest bit of the movie was definitely the 'reveal' about 28 minutes into the film. I imagine this was probably not an entirely original idea, but it was implemented well.
I enjoyed the film but also found the ending confusing. I can answer the bit about why Jericho sat and let Centauri 7 potentially shoot him - he'd previously sabotaged the weapon (remember him fiddling with the bullet?) and knew that if Centauri 7 fired the weapon he'd kill or injure himself.
But as for the very end - did Centauri 7 actually want Jericho to find his homeworld and destroy it? Couldn't work it out.
If you've never seen Enemy Mine then you can't understand what kind of movie this is. There's no good or bad guy. They are a couple of foes fighting for survival/what they believe in. The dialog is OK and the creature designs are very good. The director has worked with Stan Winston and Rob Bottin so he knows his stuff. I enjoyed it.
"He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life." - Muhammad Ali
Average is way too good. I was lured to see it by the good reviews, but it was one of the worst movies I ever saw.
First impressions:
It was for the most part barely intelligible. I am not a native speaker but 99% of all DVD`s I watch are in the English language. Whenever the commandos spoke with their helmets on, it was like white noise.
The dialogue was extremely cheesy. "Soldier, we follow orders" - oh how original.
The costume design - even the language (listen to the Bounty Hunters Jar Jar Binks-like gibberish) were an obvious rip-off from Star Wars.
The tables turned a little too often (prisoner overpowering guard, guard outwitting prisoner etc.).
There was no variation in locations: All the time, someone was running down or up a picturesque dune or ridge.
The score was too bombastic.
This flick looked more like a sci-fi role playing game being taped.
Yeah i agree it was an awesome movie!
sharebut it was one of the worst movies I ever saw.
agreed. awful movie. people talk about lack of budget etc. that shouldn't take away from writing decent dialogue/plot or having characters the audience can relate too (at the very least care about). Everyone in the flick was flat and an a**hole, maybe not the A.I. that immediately figures out what's going on, making the following 30 minutes of 'development' pointless since the audience knows 7 is, once more, just following Clea's orders. waste of time
shareAGREE PRETTY BORING
shareEven the mention of the Dracs was homage to that movie, which is a favorite of mine.
shareThe movie was enjoyable, but not as well-implemented. I think my biggest gripe was the editing. It needed more trimming, and to be a bit more clear at the end.
The best part of the movie is the photography, which looked superb.
6/10
I'm 44 and have seen countless films and like quality stuff. I watched this on Netflix and there's no way I would have left it on if it wasn't good.
I saw a story about the film on a SF blog months ago and knew it was made on a very low budget. Now, I've seen films like the insanely bad "John Carter of Mars" which probably had a larger budget and it was painful. This film had a high concept in that an amazing backstory happened off screen. That made the movie clever and interesting because the motivations of the characters was based on it and they kept exposing little bits as time went on. I liked the movie because it wasn't mindless in spite of what the filmmakers had to deal with.
Ending:
What's the problem?
The ending was a setup for a sequel. The alien was supposed to be a very determined warrior and he doesn't care about anything but settling the score with his enemy. If he has to quit his army
For having little money and no name actors everyone did a great job. At least it's an original story. For instance, if Seth Rogan's Green Hornet was on versus this, I'd be happier that I saw Hunter Prey.
It appears that the production team and the director did a very excellent job with what they had to work with. They took a simple locale, gave the audience the room to have suspension of disbelief and imagine it to be an alien world. The movie style-wise, does have some striking similarities to Star Wars (costumes, language). I liked how the alien races weren't so elaborate as to make it cheesy. I think the simplicity worked in this movies favor, since it concentrated on the chase. The constant bluffing of the characters was a good device to keep the audience on their toes.
When I see a movie of this type, I try not to over think it or compare it to the Sci-Fi greats, but respect how much the filmmakers tried to squeeze out of the resources they were allotted. When I see a movie made for TV, like on the SyFy channel, it is painfully obvious that the filmmakers are sticking to a cheap formula (and not just due to budget constraints). In this case, you get the sense that there was some sort of ambition behind the scenes. Sure, we don't see many different locales and the story wasn't the most deep or intriguing, but it certainly opens the door to a potentially more elaborate sequel or in the least, give Sandy Collora the clout to move on to bigger and better things.
For me the old adage of "less is more" defines this film. It did just enough to be pretty good, effects wise. Compared to the Star Wars prequels with infinite more budgets, which were completely overblown cgi messes(to the point of distraction,) this film is a breath of fresh air. Actors in costumes, very little cgi, was nice to see. I'd rather see a guy in costume that was just prosthetics than some cgi created creature that looks fake. By the way, Enemy Mine was not original either. That plot was lifted from "Hell in the Pacific" with toshiro Mifune and Lee Marvin, just transferred to a sci fi setting. Either way, this film wasn't really like Enemy Mine anyway. The two didn't really try to coexist and eventually work together....
There's something wonderful about a storm.
I agree with you on every point,they used what they had in a clever way to tell a really decent SF story ...
nice to see a "Doc" fan btw
"The two didn't really try to coexist and eventually work together."
Alas. I kept hoping they would get along. Could make it more emotionally engaging. In the end, upon extraction, they'd have to figure things out. Maybe disguise the human and lie about him getting away. Maybe have 7 run into a dilemma: kill the guards or turn in (or leave behind) Orn. Whatever. As it stands, I had a hard time rooting for either character. Both seemed not-so-nice. At least 7 showed some interest in Orn, though. Wanting to know his name and all that.
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Oh, kick-€$@&%!-ass! I got a MasterCard!
Crappy dialogue, uninteresting characters, bad acting. Made it through 1/2 hr.
Adds up to a '1' in my book.
Enemy Mine was a classic. This was a classic piece of crap.
JMHO.
Ah yep the movie was wasted due to lack of time and budget. Considering how much money is spent even on a TV show and this did it for far less than most any TV episode. If they had like 10 mil or so they could have made this into a real movie that a lot of people would have liked. It looks like everyone worked for free in this and only cost them the cash for the film itself.
shareI liked the movie alot. The ending was weird, but maybe they will have a sequel.
shareNo, sorry I thought it was *beep*
Story? Not really any better than a Scooby Doo episode.
Acting? There wasn't any, didn't need to be though TBF.
Effects? Actually not bad.
Music? Not bad either.
The thing is, I prefer films with good story lines. I don't want to watch a piece of art instead of a good film.
And yes they did well with a limited budget but I don't care what the budget was. I'm not a judge in a film making competition where there is a budget limit, and so I don't give more points to a lower budget film.
I've seen much worse films, and generally I don't bother with films with an IMDB score under 5.0 unless I'm really drawn to it for some reason, so I'm no expert on lower scoring films but I just didn't like this one. I felt disappointed after watching it and thought the experience was much worse than the reviews suggested it would be.
I give it 4/10.
Just watched it and I have to partly agree with both sides. Though I enjoyed the overall movie, the ending was infact awfull.
Why? Because due to poor lack of character development, there is no logical explanation for Centauri 7 action. Think about it.. He just commited genocide against his own kind.. and WHY?! We have no idea about his life, his family or anything, as the only thing he shared was a lie. So, why the heck did he do it? If we'd have a bit of his past that explains the hate for his kind,then ok, let the bastards burn, but in fact, he's clearly ok with his people,just not the government. So, I find it impossible for someone to willingly let his own kind die just to get a kick out of it.
And if you'd argue with me it's because of his honor and what not, as the human didn't kill him earlier or whatever, then I ask you.. would you care for it, if life of your people depended upon it? Would you be, like, oh, let him go, i'll perhaps find a ship and try to catch up with the dude later on. If not, oh well, *beep* happens.
But hey, endings are tough to master and overall I had a good time with this movie, despite poor character development and therefore the ending.
I agree Janis, it could have been better executed and it didnt make a whole lot of sense!
But overall the movie was pretty good, better than i was expecting but not as good as some have made out. There are a few other points that dont make any sense but i'd have to watch it again to remember them.
I'd definitely check out any future releases they do, put it that way!
Are you sure it was the home world that was going to be destroyed, in the end?
:-)