Returned

The sci-fi aspect of this was okay, the idea had promise, it's just the movie needed better execution. The lead actor did well but had little to back him up. An example being Agent Smith delivering in the flattest of ways " I don't know how to tell you this but there were no other survivors" Until the final 20 minutes, everything just seemed a little half-hearted. I'm sure some sci-fi lovers will love this, I just felt it was a chance missed.

I can honestly say I enjoyed this movie. It was clearly made on a very small budget and upon finding out it was only $7000 I was actually more impressed than before. People don't often understand where the budget tends to go and don't know much about the inner workings of how movies are really made. Space rentals, catering, actors, crew members, costumes, makeup artists, equipment, extras, ad spots, cgi, posters/promotional materials, etc all have to be bought and paid for with that budget. For a movie to be made with only $7000 and still be pretty darn good is a feat in and of itself.

This movie has great bones, the story was compelling and hooked me pretty early on. The cgi was better than some syfy channel productions with millions in budget. The acting was ok across the board, some were better than others but it was forgivable because the whole movie was very interesting. And the makeup for the alien woman was really quite neat! Heck, I would cosplay it.

I have seen a lot, and I mean A LOT, of outright terrible, nauseatingly bad, horrendous, "who even funded this?", "people had to okay this and nobody said this is trash, utter trash.", type movies (I really do mean a lot), and Returned was NOT one of those movies. I say give credit where credit is due and applaud the whole cast and crew for doing a great job with what they had to work with. With a bigger budget behind this film I bet it would turn out better than the mediocre mess that was Mortal Engines.

I appreciate and enjoy this movie for what it was and you can tell the cast enjoyed making it as well. All in all, engaging story, decent cgi considering the shoestring budget, mostly good acting (I mean really, everyone in the cast was better than Kristen Stewart), and well edited/put together. 6/10

I hope the writer got paid for the Netflix series Manifest because it is the same basic concept except a group of people came back except for one. Hmmmmm.

But otherwise this is an interesting film. Yes it's low budget. Yes the actors amd actresses didn't really hive it 100% to their roles (I think the example of children reading a play in class is accurate) but I definitely appreciate a sco fi movie featuring characters of color. Octavia Butler has a whole line of books that could be made into movies giving screen time to diverse populations and characters but they will also tale some time to translate to screen.

I saw this movie last night and finished watching it this morning. (I did sleep well, thank you Lamant.) Seriously, this movie looks like a pilot film for a TV series, or at least a film student's work. Mix-marriage couple has a son. The father has a nose bleed and he and his wife leave their son with Grandma and disappear. Years later the son has a nose bleed due to cancer. He also goes on a flight and disappears. What follows is a search as to where he was and why he came back while everyone else on his flight are still gone. Interesting story.

The bad parts... At the beginning of the movie the camera man appears to have chosen to hold the camera after drinking a pot of coffee. I was getting motion sickness at all the extreme close-ups that did nothing for the movie. A couple of times the idea of this being a "God's message" movie crept up as the question of "Do you believe in God?" and "Do you have faith?" was said a few times.

Blue Kimble did a nice job at times in his role but others seemed to be "going through the motions" since they seemed to either be acting students or upset for giving up a three-day weekend to be in his film. Diane Kirby gave a nice presence in this film. However, Agent Smith (Theresa Sullivan) kept smiling through every conversation until the end. Then we have Lethomas Lee and his so-out-of-character beard and over-the-top testosterone-driven acting. Yeah, we know his character is a bad ass with a sophomoric attitude to shoot first and ask questions later.

Overall, the first 4/5 of the story progressed with the speed of an ice glacier... slow, dragging, non-threatening. Just a character running from the "Captain Obvious" FBI agents while chasing down a TV anchor woman. But when the action FINALLY started to take place I was held to the screen.

If this progressed into something more, I would keep Blue Kimble and Diane Kirby and scrap the rest of the cast. Give it a season on TV and reintroduce Lathan's parents. I would also get more people to help poor Lamant Gant, since it appears he held every position in making this movie.

...and better written. It is impressive the film had a 7000 $ budget. They probably could have done it cheaper still though. There is a lot of this movie that just doesn't seem necessary.

The audio is just painful to listen to. The music at times is louder than the dialog. Other times there is no dialog and the music is too quiet to elude to it being on purpose. If you just listen to this movie, I think it would be a contender for worst movie ever.

The actors are trying to read lines that actual humans don't say and it comes off sounding that way. I'm suspicious they had no latitude to say the same thing with a minor alteration or lacked the confidence to try it. The camera work doesn't need to be great but steadier and mediocre would have been a lot of help.

Some redeeming points, the actors are all nice and handsome people. They seem articulate and there is nothing to say, with more work, they couldn't someday look back on this one with a chuckle.

I also appreciate the effort to entertain even with such an impossible budget. That being said, the story lets them down here. And the special effects I thought were bad but it's not a deal breaker for me. Story > acting > audio > sx imo. If they are so bad it breaks the immersion and instead of following the story, you start feeling embarrassed for the crew, it's bad. I didn't necessarily get to that point with the special effects.