Taking Earth

Since Netflix continues to try and camouflage its "bad movie" stash (by getting rid of star ratings), it's hard to know what you're wading into. Anyway, I figured this was an Asylum rip off of something. Lo and behold, I ran into something much, much worse.

I raised the white flag at about 18 minutes, which I thought was pretty sporting of me.

This is the worst movie I've seen this year. By quite a bit. This will appeal to a small subset of "so bad it's good" viewers, so if you appreciate low skill and even lower budget, this might not be too bad. The script has some howlers in it. The "actors"....hahahahaha.

Let this one go by and watch Battlefield Earth instead if you have to watch a crappy Sci-Fi film. That one's more fun.

Gets 2 stars for good camera work & locations.0 stars for anything else. Here's how the film got made;

"Money"?"Yeh, some". "Script"?, "Well, almost, still working on the dialogue", "We also had to steal some ideas, heard of 'I Am Number 4' Boss"?

"Locations booked"? "Yeh, did a sweet deal with the tourist board, got some belters, bru"!

"CGI"? "Got some degree students from Jo'burg Uni', they're using it for their degree show, so working for free"!

"Actors"? "There's a problem, boss. We've spent most of the money, and we still need a catering truck...." "So"?! "We're using the local high school Am-dram club, seem like pretty nice kids". "But can they act"?! "Wellllll.......not as such, boss, but they're enthusiastic, and free".

If Edward J Wood Jr had made films in South Africa, this is how they'd be. The upside is that E.J.Wood Jr created a whole new sub level of B movies that have earned a dedicated (if small) following. Maybe this will be seen as the same in 40 or 50 years time? A possible campus cult classic, but don't hold your breath. May even be the cause of a new sub level, like 'Z Movie' perhaps?

Ran across this while browsing Netflix...as one does. There are a lot of bad movies out there, this is not Killer Mermaid bad, but it's pretty close.

When you watch this film it'll be as though you're watching a badly dubbed Chinese flick from the 70's. The acting is atrocious, under- acted AND over- acted, it was as though the actors didn't know the language they where speaking at all. The cinematography is bland. There's awkward, badly done humor at very inappropriate times. The dialogue in general is lackluster.

The special effects are nice but stand out against the flat lighting, making them the brightest thing...which is usually a good thing...right? But not in this case. The camera that was used could have worked if there had been better lighting and maybe some more even color correcting done. The concept was good but was wasted.

Now to the positive. It is very difficult to create a feature film, especially when (judging only by the quality) it seems this is a group of people who didn't really know exactly what they where doing (I hope). Yet they all came together and created something. That's pretty darn cool and should be congratulated.

In 10 years this will be a film you'll not want anyone to remember because you'll have created things that are so much better. I look forward to that because, even though this is very bad, there is promise in the production team. Hopefully for the actors too, if they get a ton more acting lessons...they really, really need them...

All that being said I'll end with this:

Congratulations to all who put time and effort...and money into this. You have a completed project! Now go make better things!

And to everyone else, don't watch this one. Wait till their next thing comes out, it'll be better, hopefully.

From time to time, there will be a special effect spectacle, linked together by characters in unlikely situations explaining the story line via stilted dialogue. Scenes are cut together oddly, such as characters being pursued in a crowded city at night, then we suddenly see them in broad day light in a rural setting. The cast perform like people collected at random and given dialogue to recite a moment before the single take used to capture the scene. There were a couple of quality props, but over all the production communicated a lack of budget. I felt I had to give it a 2 out of 10 because the images were in focus and the sound quality was good. There was nothing compelling about the story. None of the characters were developed to the point where anyone would care about them. Hopefully everyone was paid well to create this mess of a movie.

This is one of the most awful movies I have watched.. The scenario is badly written and acting is very very bad. I think that this film is lacking a lot of emotions especially considering that chaos is everywhere because of the invasion.I was fully disappointed overall. But regarding the cost of the movie, I consider it like a not so bad amateur film.