Final Days of Planet Earth

Regular TV shows were taken off two nights for this mini-series, mainly because a rival station was showing the Commonwealth Games and I suppose the channel head honchos thought everyone would be watching the athletes and they had to put on SOMETHING so why not this drivel. This was worse than the recent Category 7 (that awful one with Shannon Doherty in it about the hurricane) and Earthquake 10.5 (about a giant earthquake destroying California). At least those two made some sort of sense. Last Days of planet blah reminds me a lot of V (80s miniseries about snake aliens who have human exteriors and are trying to take over the world when they're not eating live rodents), and a bit like the Day of the Body Snatchers (the pod people taking over humans body when their asleep), but without the suspense or character development. It should've been a TV movie instead of a miniseries - it flowed like molasses. Rule number one of scripts is to cut out anything that doesn't add to the plot. Why then stuff this with pointless scenes, like the hero walking furtively through a large room for about 30 seconds when we've seen the room 3 times before, including him and his friends discussing its purpose at length earlier, as well as the villains coming in later and discussing their dastardly plans just in case we can't connect the dots and get the point? 30 seconds is a looonnngggg time in TV land. Ditto the bad and pointless dialogue between characters sitting in vans waiting for something to happen. Show me that something happening - not the non-value-adding talk in vans! And how they overcome the dastardly villains was lamo.

Even Darryl Hannah couldn't save this one. What was the weird thing with her eyes and forehead? Bad lighting? Bad botox? And why does Australian TV keep buying this crude and why do I feel compelled to watch this trainwreck TV? I blame aliens. 1/10

This is my first time writing a comment here on IMDb. I feel that this TVmovie has been highly underrated here. This is a made for TV movie so I have rated it whit that in mind. In my opinion the story was fairly interesting, the acting was very good for this kind of film and the few special effects where also very good. I for one am glad they continue to make these kind of flicks, there aren't that much scifi being made. So even if it does not have a lot of money it's good that they allow people that have a descent story to tell to make these kind of movies. So my final conclusion is: If you like scifi and know how to enjoy a TVmovie whitout too high expectations this is one for you.

While this terrible mess deserves all the bad things said about it, I have a strong suspicion that the film was not intended to be what finally appeared on the screen. The storyline is simply too screwed-up to have been intentional.

My theory is that the film as published is actually an attempt to resurrect a project that was abandoned without being completed. Perhaps it ran overbudget. Perhaps the principals realised that it would be a dog whatever happened. Perhaps somebody died.

The result was a pile of footage with many scenes unfilmed, and many issues unresolved. Some brave person took this pile of dross and tried to make a coherent movie out of it. Their success was limited, but at least it had a sort-of beginning, a confused middle, and a silly, half-of-an ending. Not having the resources to trim it to normal film length, they made it into a two-parter. Still a disaster, but a little money coming in to cover the completion guarantee.

Well, that's my hope, anyway. Anything to prevent me having to accept that someone actually went out and created this crock on purpose. That would be too much to bear.

CD

After what appears to be a minor mishap, digging for samples on the Moon, "Pericles" space mission leader Campbell Scott (as William "Billy" Phillips) arranges to return safely to home planet Earth. While Mr. Scott sleeps, a "security breach" begins dismembering his crew. Only Scott and female passenger Daryl Hannah (as Elizabeth "Liz" Quinlan) escape to Earth. There, Scott mysteriously disappears and Ms. Hannah goes to work at San Francisco's City Hall.

Also on the ground, archaeologist Gil Bellows (as Lloyd Walker) explains his work to some grade kids on a field trip, "When you dig a hole, you travel back in time," he states. Shapely exterminator Suleka "Sue" Mathew (as Marianne) is upset with the graphic nature of Mr. Bellows' tour speech, which scares her nephew. That night, one of Bellows' young workers, Ryan McDonell (as Jonathan Gillis), is swallowed into the earth after a prank. And, he's not the only one…

Underground city workers are mysteriously vanishing; but, the "accidents" and disappearances are all being swept under the rug. This irks Bellows (he turns out to be the lead actor in this science-fiction drama, which weaves its various characters interestingly into the storyline). He is contacted by stealthy John Cassini (as Jake Roth), and the men begin piecing together a terrifying conspiracy, including a possible alien invasion, which could lead to the "Final Days of Planet Earth"!

"There's only one puzzle here, okay Walker?" Mr. Cassini advises Bellows, "Until you put your pieces on the table, it's not gonna get finished." Not sure who to trust, Bellows begins to investigate some slimy, green-bleeding blobs hidden in San Francisco's underground. He enlists the help of former astronaut Hannah (remember her from the opening Moon mission). Hannah, who is working with city commissioner Serge Houde (as Korshaft), warns "Careful where you dig."

Meanwhile, used car salesman Patrick Gilmore (as Spence) is having trouble collecting unemployment, after getting laid off; immigrants Tygh Runyan (as Nick) and Tina Milo (as Bella) worry about her husband, who is among the missing; and, homeless shelter worker Beau Starr (as Oliver), still mourning the passing of his wife Amanda, notices something unusual in the woods. They, and most of the other characters in the drama, are directed to "Room 86" for assistance...

Enter "Room 86" at your own risk! - but don't avoid "Final Days of Planet Earth" like the plague of long, lackluster TV movie extravaganzas it gets lumped with. It is too long, and unravels much during the first half of the second part; but, this is surprisingly above average "Hallmark" television production. The story, by Christian Ford and Roger Soffer nicely updates paranoid 1950s thrillers, like "Them!" (1954). Director Rob Lieberman and star Bellows keep it moving.

But, San Francisco? Have the filmmakers ever been there?

****** Final Days of Planet Earth (3/15-16/06) Robert Lieberman ~ Gil Bellows, Daryl Hannah, Suleka Mathew, Campbell Scott

Seeing Final Days of Planet Earth with nothing better to do I saw it with relatively low expectations and actually it is not great by any stretch of the imagination it was a little better than I anticipated. SyFy have done much worse than this. It does have a great title and the cast are better than average, Gil Bellows in a quite charismatic performance faring best. Daryl Hannah has given more natural performances in the likes of Splash and Roxanne but still looks gorgeous and sexy and gives her character the right amount of evilness. The scenery is decent also, and the soundtrack likewise. On the other hand, Final Days of Planet Earth is too long, everything feels very drawn dull and what made the film furthermore dull was that the story is not enough to sustain the running time so felt padded and aimless at certain points. The beginning is also very confused, and there are one too many ridiculous parts to single out. The effects are not as bad as I've seen in other SyFy movies but still look rather slapdash, while the script is stilted in flow and flatly written. The characters are also not that interesting, either coming across as stereotypical, underdeveloped or both, and I wasn't really all that surprised by the Queen's identity. All in all, there has been far worse but at the same time there is nothing to rave about. 4/10 Bethany Cox