Alien Dawn

So...ever hear of Neil Johnson? Me neither. He's the producer and director of this film, and one day he thought "You know, I think I can make the movie, War of the Worlds, that Steven Spielberg made. Yeah! That's the ticket!" And so he did. Of course, his budget was not quite as big as Spielberg's, so he had to cut corners here and there, like in script writing, actors' salaries, special effects, etc. No Tom Cruise in this flick. Oh, and yeah, he kind of likes some TV shows too, like Walking Dead, or even Lost. So he thought an aliens-invade-earth-to-eat- mankind kind of movie might be better with some video-shot footage of people, you know, kind of talking about how they feel about, well, being invaded and devoured. But, I think Mr. Johnson needs more practice and he should try again in, say, 50 years.

If you want to make your worse enemy suffer, make him (her) watch this piece of cinematographic "art" from start till end. Guaranteed to achieve the wanted result. I still have to understand why somebody will finance (even with a miserable amount) such a nonsense? I am not an old, grumpy purist, I do enjoy digestible science fiction - been a fan of easy-minded St..-Tr.. all my life, but this is unwatchable, seriously. The evil alien machine theme is with us for over a hundred years now but this has to be the worst implementation yet and I've seen a lot of recycle bin stuff in my life due to my editing work. 1) Beaten up theme = no plot whatsoever 2) Awful CGI = Painful to watch in a conscious state 3) Appalling acting = Actually no acting as such AVOID, life is short!

I've seen a LOT worse in the "War of the Worlds" genre than this, but just because there's worse out there doesn't make it good.

The aliens come. Of course their technology is far advanced of ours. We don't know why but we can guess. They hit the whole planet with weapons we can't begin to fight back against. Yet somehow a rag-tag bunch do fight, and even achieve a victory.

Is that this movie? Well actually that's "Independence Day" - but they are much the same overall plot. Just don't expect so much from here. The acting is stiff but tolerable. There are glaring plot holes but then there always are. The special effects were adequate but then these days you can make amazingly good special effects on your home computer if you know how.

If it's a cheap enough rental and you're bored, try it.

Up till now, the accepted gold standard for the worst film ever made has been Plan Nine from Outer Space, directed by the incomparable Ed Wood.

But I'm here to tell you all that Neil Johnson has surpassed Mr. Wood with his Sci-Fi epic, Alien Dawn.

I've never posted anything on IMDb before, but I felt that the magnitude of the awfulness of this film had to be addressed.

Oh, and the reviewers who gave it 4 and 5 stars?

Really? Seriously?

One guy even said, "I've seen a LOT worse in the 'War of the Worlds' genre than this."

Please! Be serious! Some people rely on this site for guidance when renting movies. I downloaded the thing off the net for free and I STILL feel robbed.

For every interpretation of H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds" — from the radio broadcast and the movies, to the TV series — one could safely rely on consistency: interesting, if not always likable protagonists bearing witness to the near extinction of humanity at the three-fingered hands of aliens motoring around in tripod war machines firing death rays with a distinctive "pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew" sound. In fact, no matter how each version changed with location, hero or narrative device, the ray guns and tripods have been mandatory (often, using the same sound effects Byron Haskin's created for the 1953 movie). And just as consistently, every movie and TV producer since has as least acknowledged H.G. Wells' in a story credit.

That is, until Neil Johnston dropped this steaming pile of dark matter onto our planet. Perhaps that's just as well. Why besmirch a great legacy with this amateurish entry?

In a jumble of styles — which simply HAS to include some found-footage video journalism — the writer/director lifts from a variety of other sources as well. Most obviously, Dawn of the Dead, and the 1984 version of Red Dawn. Perhaps the only redeeming quality is including the word "Dawn" in the title, so the viewer might mistake this as some kind of homage.

You might think that despite the crushing familiarity of the material, you could find a morsel of entertainment. Perhaps you have a fondness for cheaply-rendered 3D and quickly executed After Effects. But if you love clumsy hack writing, this is the movie for you. Betraying even less skill with dialog than he does with with plagiarizing plot, the director creates a world of bickering, unlikeable morons you don't care anything about. And they're often sputtering ill-considered truisms from other films. For example, after one character theorizes that the invading aliens are changing our terrestrial environment to suit their biological needs, a key character solemnly - and unironically - declares, "It's called 'Terraforming.'" Indeed. And Alien Dawn isn't the product of film-making, but rather "movie-forming."