Portal da Morte

A pretty good "B" grade SF. I worried toward the end that it was going to "wimp out" and opt for a religious interpretation of all the various goings on. But the film stayed true to itself, offering no easy or obvious answers, while at the same time resolving its story line in a fairly satisfactory manner.

Several of the plot "twists" and characters are cliche's; however, some are not as cliche as they initially appear, and ultimately, even the most predictable ones are managed in a comparatively non-offending manner.

Worth seeing.

The plot of this story is interesting, coupled with the Millenium anxiety that was prevalent during the time of release. However, huge hole in plot, lack of background and poor scripting resulted in a mediocre "armageddon" movie.

The background is that an ancient, gigantic, floating rock-like object suddenly appeared out from underground after 4 billion years. Of course, scientists, together with the prerequite of military force have to investigate. David Keith, plays the main protegonist who is supposedly incredibly intelligent and works under a female diplomat.

The usual, predictable sparks appear, between male and female, scientists and the military, USA vs China (the location is supposedly close to the Chinese border in Asia).

The worst thing is that there is potential for this show to have much better ratings. However, horrible scripts that don't into details, just action, action, action, coupled with the director's inability to elicit any emotion from the wooden actors/actresses except for the extreme ones made this show a movie that only a geek would like.

There was not much I expected from Epoch, thinking that surely we would have one of these B-movies with pausing dialog and s****y script. So in some ways I was surprised, as the result was much better then I expected. What saved this film was pretty good idea and not too bad script. The main actors did well, keeping their conversation fast paced and witty. There were some parts that irritated me though, mostly to do with the government, which seemed to be filled with idiots. It had a weird balance between comedy and action, which I don't think really worked here, and even though some wit is good, they should have kept it more realistic. I especially enjoyed Brian Thompson, which we have seen in so many TV shows (Star Trek, X-File). He managed to actually act here, which he is not allowed to do often, and I think he is underrated as an actor. But the performance of Ryan O'Neal just irritated me along with a few of the others; with such bad over-acting that it was painful to watch. However, this film lacks action and the storyline went steadily down hill from beginning to end. The idea could have been used to make a pretty good action movie, with a little bit better worked out storyline, and much better casting. 5/10

Listen, I have seen REAL junk before seeing this movie - movies with worse scripts, worse special effects, worse acting, you name it. That's why I am kind of puzzled with everyone here claiming that those attributes in this movie are the worse possible. All I can think is that they have mostly or completely watched big-budget Hollywood product, and think that the only good films that exist must fit that criteria.

The movie starts off pretty well, thanks in part to an intriguing premise. And the investigation of the object and the events surrounding it keep up the interest, with some genuine intelligent touches. There is also some extra tension added with the subplot about the Chinese.

Okay, the special effects overall may not be up to a big-budget Hollywood movie, but they are far above average for made-for-video movies. (And a few, in fact, are excellent.) And yes, there are a few questionable things in the script, such as how the Chinese first react to the object when they get near it. The acting is mainly mediocre, but it's not so bad that it keeps distracting you from the characters and the events.

However, I will admit that the movie ultimately ends up being a big question mark. A lot of intriguing questions are brought up, but there is little done to answer them. Still, this is nowhere the worst movie that's ever been made. For those who think so, I say: Expand the range of what you watch! For starters, try watching movies made by Royal Oaks or Phoenician Entertainment, or movies produced by Lloyd A. Simandl!

Good story concept. The special effects could have been a little better. I think this is a movie made by SciFi channel. Being a made for TV movie it isn't half bad. The story reminds me of the movie "Sphere" It is worth a watch based on the story concept alone. I'm glad I watched it.