Meteor: First Impact

Granted, I wasn't really harboring much of any grand expectations to the 2022 disaster movie "Meteor First Impact" as I sat down to watch it in 2023. In fact, I had never actually heard about it, yet I still opted to give it a fair chance.

And I would be lying if I said that I figured that writer and director Brett Bentman would deliver just another run-of-the-mill disaster movie. You know, the generic ones that follow the same formula, and often is troubled by inferior CGI effects.

However, I was wrong, because "Meteor First Impact" actually turned out to be even worse than just your average generic run-of-the-mill disaster movie about celestial bodies hitting Earth. "Meteor First Impact" was actually one of the worst disaster movies that I have stumbled upon.

The storyline was all over the place, and had very little focus on the disaster aspect actually, which is odd, because you would assume a movie about meteors would be focusing on the dangers and threats of meteoric strikes on Earth and the damage in its wake. However, "Meteor First Impact" seemed to spend its time between being a drama about a marriage struggling with the cancer of the wife in the marriage, the aftermath of having lost a family member, trying to find a lost young man, and then a little bit of natural destruction from meteors.

You would assume that meteors striking Earth and with multiple more meteors inbound Earth that there would be a lot of press coverage and news bulletins, not to mention panic across the nations. Not for one second throughout the course of 78 minutes that the movie ran for did it even come across the screen with anything even resembling those things. And that made "Meteor First Impact" a very laughable attempt at making a disaster movie.

And the actual impacts of meteors hitting remote nature areas and cities didn't feel believable at all, because the destruction was minimal, the impact blasts were weak and small, and you just don't buy into the fact that this was supposed to be an end of the world phenomena.

The acting performances in the movie were mediocre. I mean, the performances were probably fair enough taking into consideration the severe limitations of the script and storyline, but there weren't any noteworthy or memorable performances on the screen.

Visually then "Meteor First Impact" was adequate. The special effects looked okay. Nothing grand or particularly impressive, but it just didn't feel like anything with a forceful impact to it - pardon the pun.

If you enjoy natural disaster movies, then you could essentially skip on watching "Meteor First Impact" from writer and director Brett Bentman, because it was just another dubious foray into the genre.

My rating of "Meteor First Impact" lands on a two out of ten stars.

Despite the fact that this movie quickly runs off the tracks, i will say it is watchable. Thom Hallum and Emma Grace Sanderson don't have the greatest material to work with here but they make the most of it. I've seen some other movies similar to this where the main event isn't actually the oncoming disaster, but everyday people problems. There just isn't enough here to warrant a very high rating even though i think Hallum does sort of engage the audience. For me it was something to watch and critique, and will be fondly recalled. But it has some holes. In fact Plot Holes might have been a better title. I dunno, maybe if i watch it again it will all be clearer to me. Don't fear it though, pop some corn and give it a watch.

When I researched this title, 123 people had put in a rating and the average sat at 4.9, which doesn't mean much with such low participation and then I read the one good review (there were only 3 at the time) from someone who actually took the time to write something substantial. It left me feeling I would be entertained, at the very least, giving this movie a shot.

5 minutes into it and while the acting was weak, I thought, OK, give the story itself a try, it has potential and maybe the acting gets better over time. The next 15 minutes set up more of the story and I'm thinking, can't wait to see the disasters!

Boy, was I in for a wait...the next 40 minutes are very slow moving (I don't want to spoil it but a kinder person would put you out of your misery before you get to this part). Imagine a slow funeral march, or how slow one walks when you've been shopping all day or running after the kids at an amusement park, and you'll likely equate those 40 minutes to the same thing. OH! Watching a snail cross a football field works too.

Yes, like all disaster movies, time is always of the essense and things move quickly (or should). I think the director forgot that part in the story line. Nothing is rushed.

Last 18 minutes: There's the meteor strike (that's not spoiling anything since it is about meteors striking), scenes from nature, and a few populated areas with some very bad effects edited over them. Nothing gets destroyed, no one is running for cover or in a panic, even with massive fireballs flying low above them. Finally, there's a bit of nerd talk that really doesn't matter.

In short, let me save you time you could better use perhaps cleaning the crud between your toes, taking the trash out, or watching a spider spin its web. You would likely have more fun counting all the letters in the dictionary.

Anyone proud of this movie, would have to be related to the 10 year old who put it together. There is no real concept of impending doom, nor a rush to stop it. The person also had limited area to work with, so perhaps in their back yard or at camp is where most of the real footage was shot. Any and all disaster shots seemed to have been taken from the internet or some travel videos. My bet is on travel videos based on one of the scenic locations. From there, they used their limited CGI skills and you then have sonny's amazing movie.

I'm scratching my head over the people who gave this movie 10/10. I wonder if we watched the same movie. I usually am pretty generous if at least I enjoyed it but this movie failed to deliver much of anything. It was the usual scientist who nobody listens to at their own risk, and no issue was resolved. The acting was OK but the teen girl was terrible. The flashbacks were so awkward that I didn't even know if I was still watching the same movie. Too much time was spent on the psychopath in the woods. As for typical disaster fare, there was nothing to get excited about, and based on what I did see, it is a stretch to believe that the meteors actually had the impact the scientist predicted.

"Meteor: First Impact" is a cinematic catastrophe that leaves viewers longing for a real meteor strike to put an end to their suffering. From the opening scene, it's clear that this film is on a collision course with failure. The plot, if you can call it that, is a jumbled mess of clichés and predictability.

The characters are as flat as the surface of the moon, lacking any depth or development. Their actions and motivations are often baffling, making it impossible to invest in their fates. The dialogue is so cringe-worthy that it's almost impressive, with cheesy one-liners that belong in a parody rather than a serious disaster movie.

Special effects, which should be the saving grace of a film like this, are shockingly bad. The meteor itself looks like a poorly animated rock, and the destruction it causes is laughably unrealistic. It's as if the filmmakers were trying to outdo the absurdity of the script with equally absurd visuals.

The pacing is excruciatingly slow, with long stretches of nothing happening followed by brief moments of chaos that lack any tension or excitement. Even the most die-hard disaster movie fans will find themselves checking their watches and wondering when it will all end.

In conclusion, "Meteor: First Impact" is a catastrophic failure in every sense of the word. It's a film that should come with a warning label: "View at your own risk." Save your time and money for something more deserving of your attention, because this meteoric disaster deserves nothing more than a 1 out of 10 rating.