Sol Invictus

I had not heard of this movie. It is a cheaply made galactic version of "Lord of the Flies." That said, it stands reasonable well on its own. A group of boys find themselves on a planet during a competition among some space cadets. They are somehow dropped into a milieu that is not what they expected. One group is connected and the rest are singles who must prove themselves to the rest. There is a dangerous creature or creatures on the planet, but the real threat is within the group. They are caught between their competitive beings and their wish to escape their prison. The thing reeks of distrust and immaturity (which means that it does hit the mark pretty well). They are incredibly dangerous individuals and babies at the same time. They are selfish and simple, but they are also filed with angst and complexities. My biggest criticism is that we are never able to figure out what the hell they are doing there and what they are trying to accomplish when it comes to getting home. A clear picture of that would have taken it beyond an encounter among a diverse group of flawed figures. Also, I would have liked to know what life on Earth was like at this time.

From the beginning, people act like they know what they're doing but we really have no idea what the movie is about.

Eventually, we get the plot, more or less. The idea is this is some kind of competition on a deserted planet. This is a sci-fi movie, and the whole movie is filmed at the beach. I got tricked by the label sci-fi and the idea of a foreign planet, but really this is just a bunch of guys at the beach.

The movie is bad. I think normally that makes me puke would get a 1. It's not at that level, but it still gets the worst score for the following reason: - Not a single interesting character. I can't distinguish their personality and I don't even now any of their names. - Not a single smile for 99% of the movie. The characters try to act serious the whole time, and smile only to make smart ass comments. - This one ought to convince you: THERE'S NO SINGLE GIRL.

I registered with IMDb just so that I could write this review. I was that motivated by the awfulness of this movie. I defy you to name a worse movie. If this movie was any worse, it would actually be better, by virtue of being remarkably something. Normally, I would simply stop watching a bad movie, but I was morbidly curious as to whether the ending could be as terrible as the beginning, so I fast forwarded there. Indeed, they managed to cook up an ending as bad as the beginning. This movie has it all- bad acting, bad costumes, bad effects, an incoherent plot. At the same time, it has none of he awful charm of an Ed Wood flick.

I was utterly surprised at how poorly this movie was reviewed by some people.

Bottom line, this movie had me in its grips from almost the beginning.

While perhaps there were a few forced moments in the plot, I really didn't know what was going to happen, and yes, I cared about the characters.

I watched this with my 9-year-old son and we both like it.

For me there was an appropriate amount of mystery, and I even liked the spareness of the setting, the dialog and the plot.

This movie is not about space. It's about PEOPLE.

The bots and other reviewers giving it a 1 as is usual these days. Its not one for the ages but the Lord of the Flies overtones are OK in an alternate planet (aka North Carolina).