The Lost Future

Here is a tip top made for TV Sci-Fi movie. The script is clever, the film belies it's budget looking fab with the South African locations and all the cast shine.The creature effects are excellent and the action gallops along with some style.I would of really liked to have seen this on a big cinema screen rather than my TV,big as it is, with the bloody adverts every 10 muns butting in.Another problem with watching films on TV here in the UK is the TV channel logo top right all the way through a film. Someone explain why? I know which station i am on. Anyway can't fault this film so it gets top marks from me mainly due to 60 years of not seeing this plot used before in the Sci-fi genre.Well worth your time or rent it without fear of the cost.

Many of the SyFy Channel's original made-for-TV movies have been disappointing, to say the least. Their latest entry however, "The Lost Future", proved to be fairly entertaining. Which is something to say since I'm not usually into post-apocalypse-themed movies. Here are some observations:

1) special effects - though there were not that many required, the ones present were well done, eg. the big monster-creature. The cinematography was good also. 2) acting - decent and believable. 3) story line - starts out with clan interaction followed by its relationship to the tribe. Then branches out to conflict with main enemy, then adds additional allies (and adversaries). The Huck Finn raft was a nice touch.

This movie seemed more believable and "realistic" than other SyFy movies, albeit at the end the future still seems pretty lost to me. All-in-all, "The Lost Future" was a step above the usual SyFy movie fare.

A post-pandemic world is the setting for a very watchable morality tale about obligation to others and sacrifice for the collective good.

Some klunk here and there but the sets, costumes, performances and themes are well above the very, very, very, very low bar set by SyFy (e.g., "Mega Python vs. Gatoroid"), in fact far enough above that this is a decent movie in its own right.

Sean Bean is a decent actor and does well in this movie along with no- name cast, to a unusually deep level. Good action scenes, too; fights from horseback, group hand-to-hand combat, interiors and exteriors.

The major characters all have interesting conflicts and the interaction is believable (though as some have said, they are all waaaay too pretty). No eye candy shouting their lines; the actors modulate well and for a very large part play their roles believably.

There's also a nice structural component with parallel story lines, unusually nuanced for the media. The story lines alternate well between the questing leads, the tribespeople trapped in the cave, and Gagen's self-justifying depravity, are better than expected for the genre.

One of the other reviews said "Good bones, bad carpeting". That's well put - I'd say the carpeting is cheap, not bad, but that's just semantics.

To be clear - this is not an A-list movie; it's entertaining but low budget. The primitive tribespeople are groomed to the max and comically articulate, the effects are serviceable but still almost all CGI, one of the leads father seems to have somehow taught -himself- to read in the absence of any other literate persons (??), etc.

All of that notwithstanding, I have sat through way worse Hollywood crap with 100X the budget and one-tenth the script. Not Inception or anything epic, but worth a watch if you are looking for a couple of hours of entertainment.

I make all these points because the people who make these movies work just as hard as the Hollywood A_listers but don't get the recognition.

Just because it's a B movie doesn't mean there should be no standards. When a movie crew puts time and effort into making a structurally good movie, it deserves recognition even if it's never going to be on "Entertainment Tonight".

There should be a genre name for these films which not quite A-list but better than traditional "B movies" - decently made, not great art, but decent entertainment. Maybe "paperback movie" is a better title - other examples are "Snitch", "The Naked Kiss", "Love and a .45", or "Red Eye".

In a post-apocalyptic world, a group of survivors led by Uri (Tertius Meintjes) and the ancients are organized in tribe, in a primitive society without technology and lives in a small village in the Grey Rock National Park surrounded by beasts that transmit a disease that transforms the victims in mutants. Uri's son Savan (Corey Sevier) is the best hunter of their tribe and successor of his father, while Kaleb (Sam Claflin) is the best tracker and together with his sister Miru (Eleanor Tomlinson), they are the only survivors that can read and writer. Their father Jaret believed that it might exist other survivors outside Grey Rock and left them alone to wander around the area. Kaled is a dreamer and secretly loves Savan's woman Dorel (Annabelle Wallis).

When the beats surprisingly attack Uri's hamlet, a group runs to a cave and block the entrance with logs. Kaleb saves Dorel from a beast and sooner Savan meets them. Out of the blue, the stranger Amal (Sean Bean) approaches to the trio and invites them to join his family, composed by his wife Neenah (Jessica Haines) and their son Persk that lives in the outskirt of Grey Rock protected by a river. Sooner Amal discloses to them that Jaret had found the formula of a yellow powder that cures the sick persons. However, the evil Gagen (Jonathan Pienaar) had stolen the powder and kept with him. Amal, Savan, Kaleb and Dorel travel together to find Gagen and bring the yellow powder to their tribe.

Yesterday I saw "The Lost Future" and based on the 4.7 IMDb User Rating, I found it an underrated adventure. The story is entertaining and Sean Bean and the unknown actors and actresses have good performances. The special effects are decent and fortunately I did not give credit to the bitter users that were not able to appreciate a pleasant adventure. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Futuro Perdido" ("The Lost Future")

Don't believe all the haters this was miles above the usual SyFy channels movies. Sean Bean while he has a small part adds a bit of validation to the Film. Reminded me a little of 10,000BC, the few special effects pieces were well done, acting was good overall. The movie moves along at a nice pace and you really care about the characters. Add to the mix some Zombies and you have a great evening of popcorn munching fun for home viewing if this were out on DVD I would probably rent it for my friends who haven't seen it. Beautiful Cinematography really captures the sites and help to draw you in to the overall story.