O Despertar dos Deuses

Oh dear. A made for TV movie starring David Charvet. They tried to apparently do some kind of cool archeology movie and failed horribly. John Rhys Davies should have asked for his name to be stricken from the record of this one. It is just completely horrible.

And IMDB has now made it so a review has to have 600 characters before it can be entered. I really don't expect that to last very long because people are sure to complain about it. But until that happens I guess we have to expect reviews to be long winded and sometimes about absolutely nothing to do with the show in question.

This one gets a 3/10.

If you don't expect too much from this movie, then "Prisoners of the Sun" is actually entertaining enough for what it is. But just a word of warning, don't get your expectations up too high.

"Prisoners of the Sun" is about professor Masterton (played by John Rhys-Davies) who is uncovering an ancient pyramid, just in time for a celestial event that takes place only once every 5000 years. Deep within the heart of this ancient pyramid is the secrets of the lore of ancient Egypt and the visitors from beyond our world who brought civilization and marvels to mankind. But the trek to the heart of the pyramid is a perilous one.

Essentially, then the storyline was alright, cheesy, yes, but still fun enough to watch. The storyline was very predictable and didn't really offer much in any kind of surprises or grand moments.

The effects in the movie were good enough, although don't expect to be dazzled or blown away.

As far as the acting in the movie went, well, then once again don't get your hopes up too high, because this is most definitely not award-winning performances. People did fair enough jobs with their roles, but it just didn't feel wholeheartedly.

The ending of the movie was really a slap in the face, especially after having sat through an hour and a half only to have the movie end with such an anti-climatic shut down.

And with their constant descent and venture into the pyramid, it was surprisingly amazing that once it all collapsed that they were right back up to the ground level in a blink of an eye.

If you enjoy adventurous movies that include spelunking, treasure-hunting and ancient civilizations, then there are far better movies available.

I remember a time, when I used to love movies like this. Low budget, weird characters, easy to follow, clear cut characters, who'd be either good or bad. It does feel like a throwback, but not in a good sense. Of course there have been worse movies and considering the budget this movie (probably) used, this is pretty decent.

Still it would be too much to say, you have to watch this. Even as a party movie it doesn't really work. You have Mr. Davies in it though, who while still acts as if this is something important. Producers got their money worth there. Judging the other actors on this movie alone would be a bit unfair though. Sometimes you have to start small ...

In Egypt, Prof. Hayden Masterton (John Rhys-Davies) organizes an expedition to a pyramid to witness an event that takes place only once every 5000 years. But he needs to buy a key from a local dealer that will awaken aliens from outer space that are hidden inside the pyramid. However the treasure hunter Peter Levitz (Michael Higgs) kills the dealer with Masterton's walking stick and steals the key; then he blackmails Masterton to participate in the expedition. When the team breaks in the pyramid, they find deadly traps and only a few will survive and Masterton uses the blood of his own daughter to activate a system to awaken the aliens. Will Earth be doomed to an apocalypse?

"Prisoners of the Sun" is a movie of action, adventure and horror with a lame and messy unoriginal story. It is funny to see Prof. Hayden Masterton preparing an expedition where a key is necessary but he will only buy it in the last minute. The plot and unpleasant characters are near ridiculous but the acting is reasonable despite the histrionic John Rhys-Davies performing the lead role. The special effects are decent but the disappointing conclusion is awful and this film deserves the IMDb User Rating. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "O Despertar dos Deuses" ("The Awakening of the Gods")

A multinational expedition discovers a lost city beneath a pyramid, where they must stop the reawakened gods of ancient Egypt from initiating the apocalypse.

Despite a good cast, decent writers and all that, this is nothing special. I am not sure if it was a made-for-SyFy film, but that is exactly how it comes across. There is an interesting idea (however misguided) about Osiris actually being the Osiri people... I like that, even if it ignores how Egyptian is translated into English...

But overall, this is rather blah and not really worth a viewing, or at least not a second viewing. Could have spent my time better.