User reviews

It's a C movie with a script seemingly developed by a small team of 13 year old boys, boys of average intelligence who enjoy sport more than science.

Every scene has some element of mind-numbing stupidity, be it dialog, acting, set (apparently Afghanistan exists in a Canadian quarry and is populated by a mix of Pakistanis and Palestinians, we know it's a hot country because there's about 3mm of sand on the floor)... so in every scene there's something to laugh about, shout "nooo!" or point at smiling.

The plot is incoherent, as are the motivations and actions of all the characters involved... it's a parade of poorly sketched fools.

I'm a fan of bad movies, Birdemic, Sharknado etc... this doesn't quite have the style or entertainment value of either of those two but I still found it funny.

If you choose to spend 3 hours of your life gaining pleasure from ripping apart a movie then you may enjoy this, otherwise stay well away my friends!

If anyone watches a TV disaster flick and expects anything but entertaining schlock, they need a reality check. Such movies are designed for two nights of brainless entertainment, not scientific accuracy and logic. If the viewer expects the writers and directors to adhere to strict science at the expense of excitement and suspense, seriously... do you realize what this is? It's not like anyone forced you to watch yet another disaster film.

Comparatively, this movie is considerably better than anything produced by Asylum. The characters were cliche but at least held true to their nature. The writing wasn't awful (we've seen awful writing, yes?). Okay, so the science isn't spot on (or even close). The purpose here is to keep the average viewer entertained and face it, the average viewer has very little knowledge of actual science.

The questions here are: was the story entertaining, was the filming and acting okay, was it boring or exciting? Expecting a disaster film to be cerebral is like watching a Saturday morning cartoon and giving it 2 stars for being childish. Let's not be goofy.

I enjoyed the film, despite the scientific inaccuracy, despite the illogical presentation, because I didn't go in with a, "I'm going to be as critical as I can be" attitude. I went in to watch a television disaster film, knowing exactly what this genre usually produces. I wasn't disappointed. It held its own, according to what is expected from such films. Perhaps some of these reviews themselves need a 1-star rating for "Excessively unrealistic expectations". I mean geeminy, what were you expecting when you started watching this? ;D

One point about science fiction movies, is to impress the viewer with science or technology that could once be real. But in this movie nothing makes sense about science. Not speaking about the bad and slow plot with sometimes terrible unreal action performances.

Just to name a view paradox: -they are close to the sun, but are communicating on video phone in real time. The signal would take at least 7 minutes between the sun and earth. (later they correctly state that the impact would only be seen 7 to 8 minutes later on earth.) -As the engines don't work and they float around the moon they experience g forces! In reality they would only feel 0 gravity on board because the gravitation of the moon and the acceleration of the ship would cancel each other out. Same like a space ship in orbit. -How comes that its always daylight in USA and Afghanistan at the same time? -When he is activating the bomb manually in space (0 bar airpresion) he would explode. -the sun is 330000 times bigger than the earth so an impact would we like a tear drop into the oceans. And most probably the space ship would melt long time before it would hit anything solid. At least I don't know anything that wouldn't at 6000 kelvin. Even Ta4HfC5 already melts at 4488 K.

Firstly I should like to say that I genuinely believe that were I to watch this in glorious 3D the characters would still stubbornly remain wholly 2 dimensional. A cast of characters and a global population all in direst peril yet not one managed to elicit the smallest shred of sympathy. Logically I should next discuss the plot but that would require the existence of one. And last and least the science, sorry 'science', is unfathomable. How is it possible that anyone tasked with creating a script could so utterly fail to grasp even the tiniest shred of the laws of physics.

All in all quite the most preposterous slice of pseudo-science I think I've ever had the misfortune to come across.

Just an aside but am saddened to see that the prior comment by welsh_dragon_roar was so poorly received. I mean come on. It's irony folks.

The reviews so far have fallen into the 'OMFG it's the worst thing EVAR' or 'OMFG it's a Stellar Masterpiece' camp. Both factions seem more interested in hyperbole than actual description. In reality it's not bad. Not great, but not bad. The FX for the space flight and solar stuff are actually pretty good. As for the rest, they did a decent job with a limited budget. Characterization isn't a mile deep, but hey, this is an action-drama, not Shakespeare. It's amazingly long, but that's not really a negative; you're getting more movie for your $;-). Current rating is lower than it deserves, it's a good 5.0-6.0. It won't change your life, but it's a decently entertaining flick. Watch without fear.

No spoiler. No hyperbole. Just a really poorly acted and poorly written work. In fairness, the lack of any reasonable budget is palpable throughout, with underwhelming sets and obvious inability to spend even modest money on scientific fact-checking.

Any positive reviews are clearly either family or Canadian members of the industry because there is simply nothing redeeming about this.

Acting - like a CBC drama series - wooden, two dimensional and forced throughout.

Writing - hackneyed and confused. The conflict between the two male leads is based on a simplistic less-than-made-for-TV concept, which only gets worse as their conflict continues.

As stated, the set design is cheap and the shuttle looks like something from Lost-in-Space - I kept waiting for someone to exclaim "Danger Will Robinson" (which, actually would have added an element of camp humour to an exceedingly dull and vapid film).

So - terrible in every sense. Nothing - and I mean nothing - to redeem it.

So at the time I'm writing this review, it's rated as a 3.3 movie... and it deserves better. It's not like the big budget movies and it's obvious the production team as a whole had to make do with less, but the story actually sticks together fairly well, the characters in the movie are fairly realistic, in the sense that they act like human beings, with flaws and redeeming virtues.

I've seen people on here complain about the story being unrealistic or there not being enough science in it... when has that stopped movies like say Avatar and Pacific rim from becoming major hits? That said, I found the majority of the story line credible enough and enjoyed the almost 3 hours of story very much.

In my opinion, people focus on many of the wrong things in their reviews of this movie and it's sad how movies with no substance but visual dazzle can garner a rating that is so much higher than a movie like this, that actually has a good, rounded off story line.

Movies like this and especially its rating are the reason why you should always make up your own mind when deciding which movie to watch. I wouldn't say it's worthy of a rating of 8 out of 10, but I decided to rate it up some, simply to get the average up. I hope you will do the same.

Sci-fi is my favorite genre, but boy is it taking a beating lately. Even the big budget films seem to be incapable of getting the job done. Most of the other reviews pretty well cover everything. The opening sequences have a group of civilians on their first flight into space that looks more like a group on a vacation flight in a Lear jet. The pilot is whiny and controls the whole ship with a helicopter joy stick with shiny lights on it. Everything is down hill from there. This movie definitely takes the sci out of sci-fi. Only a frontal lobotomy will help with this department. The unfortunate truth is: that by the end I didn't care if they all died, except for possibly the Afghani girl who, well you know what happens. Hoped for better, but no joy.

I'm sorry--I'm sure the film and set crews enjoyed having yet another gig to keep them employed, but you have to ask yourself--why would anyone assemble such a decent selection of actors around a script with a plot so asinine it actually inspires contempt? The absurd premise behind the plot, coupled with a meandering, vacuous script makes one instantly think of the sheer waste of opportunity in engaging in such a project and then turning it into such a sad, disappointing mess.

The producers here need to stay away from any further dabbling in 'sci-fi', since they obviously aimed for a genre and it's devoted demographic that they know absolutely nothing about.

An absolute waste of talent, time and money, and a real pity...

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As another reviewer pointed out, this is a horribly flawed story by a completely insane statist (of the leftist variety). The sci-fi aspect is just the vehicle for the soap-box treatment. He tries to teach us how the government is perfect, the answer to everything, and every individual must subvert himself to the reigning authority. What a sick world.

If you don't notice this aspect of the movie, you're lucky. Really, this is 3 or 4 short movies of 3 or 4 genres, glued together into one Frankenstein monster. The 3-way relationship at the core of the story was horrible, and had no place in a movie like this (except to add pointless minutes and irrelevant forced tension).

The sci-fi part was extremely lame too, sadly. Not at all convincing.

Not many, but a few of the actors were competent. I feel sorry for them. I also feel sorry for the producers and special-effects folks, who also did quite competent jobs. Sad to see so much talent wasted on a seriously stupid story.

I have seen enough to write a good enough review about this movie/show. I find it to be a very cheesy poorly written script. I mean for what it is, it is not that bad though. However, there was little to no research put into this with the "Scalar drive I mean when you say it is going 5,000MPM (Miles per minute) that comes to about 8 million meters a second. The distance from the moon to the sun is about 152 Million meaning you have less then 20 seconds... More detail and refining of the little things would have made this C list TV/Movie a more enjoyable watch. Perhaps next time they might invest in someone reading the script before they start filming perhaps?

I had indeed never heard about this 2013 TV movie titled "Exploding Sun" prior to stumbling upon it by random chance here in 2025. And I figured that this would most likely be another generic natural disaster movie, but I still opted to watch it on account of it being a movie that I hadn't already seen.

Needless to say that I didn't exactly harbor the biggest of expectations to director Michael Robison's movie. And the movie's cheesy title did plan a seed of this most likely being a questionable and laughable natural disaster movie.

But color me impressed. This movie was actually rather enjoyable. It was an interesting storyline and narrative from writer Jeff Schechter. The script was a bit more than your average generic natural disaster movie script, so that was certainly good.

The TV movie is actually divided into two parts, each playing for as long as an ordinary movie. And I have to say that the first part was way more entertaining, interesting and exciting than the second part.

Of the entire cast ensemble, I was only familiar with David James Elliott and Julia Ormond. The acting performances in "Exploding Sun" were good.

The effects in "Exploding Sun" were actually rather good for a TV movie such as this. And that definitely added to the overall enjoyment of watching it.

My rating of this 2013 TV movie lands on a five out of ten stars. If the second part had been as enjoyable and entertaining as the first part, the movie would have landed a six star rating from me. But sadly part two was anti-climatic and sluggish, so it dragged the overall impression of the movie down a notch.

From the very moment this film starts, you know you're in for a scientific and emotional roller-coaster ride. The characters are very well introduced and you quickly bond with them, becoming familiar with their nuances and unspoken connections with each other. This really allows you to empathise with them given the extreme terror they face.

And what terror. The attention to scientific detail is second to none. I expect this to go down as a hard sci-fi classic. I was quite literally hovering on the edge of my seat during the space sequences, and when tragedy struck, it felt as if it was a family member I was seeing there on screen.

Strongest though is the rapport between the two male leads. Never have we seen such a strong representation of two lovers in denial and using a woman as a catalyst for deflective antagonistic discourse. But towards the end when they realise they can deny each other no longer, well, let's just say that parting can be such sweet sorrow.

I cannot wait for the director's cut to come out. The film felt far too short and rushed at a mere two and three quarter hours, and hopefully we'll have it restored to its full glory at some point.

I don't get all the negative, self-righteous criticism of the movie. It's a movie about a next-generation space shuttle that can take civilians into space and to the moon rather quickly. Of course it's not believable because it's impossible to do something like that. So set your belief aside and enjoy the movie for what it is: science fiction. Of course you can't talk back and forth instantly to a spacecraft that's near the Sun, but think about how boring it would have been if the director had made it realistic and we had to wait 8 minutes for each response. The person who criticized the part about the cell phone being used to call the shuttle obviously missed the part where the computer geek patches it through the company space communications system. The special effects were better than I expected, although I got tired of seeing the sun shown as a giant ball of lava-like material. Sun loops are magnetic and have a certain form -- nothing like what was portrayed. Since the entire movie is about how the Sun behaves, I would have thought they'd pay more attention to trying to make it look like what it actually does.

Most actors are known from other series and there for you can expect good acting. That is exactly what you get. It can be a great show if you're not to nerdy and can see past all scientific mambo jumbo. For instance plasma clouds don't travel at the speed of light, light travels in 8 minutes from the sun to earth. I found lost of these kind of 'mistakes', which takes away the 'reality'. For how real a TV show can be anyway. The story line is not very complex and is kinda easy to figure out how things evolve to it's end. The show didn't brought me to the "tip of my seat". I'd grade this as a "sit back, relax and turn of you're brain off show". Something to watch in the weekday's after a hard day working.

Why can't the casting director (if this nonsense had one) pick the lead actors that can speak clearly, or at least don't have any speech impediments? I'm talking about Anthony Lemke. I don't know why his bottom lip sticks out, or his jaw, or why his tongue doesn't work. But I would have thought that the director would request another take when this guy mumbles his lines.

Perhaps he - Lemke - thinks it is "Brando-esque" to mumble, to be incoherent, but I don't. It is a pain.

So for those of you who actually want to understand the mumblings of this lead actor... get the subtitles!