The Phoenix Rises

This is your usual modern, cheap, apocalyptic movie. The plot is rushed, muddled and, in places, nonsensical. The narrative is rushed. The acting is mediocre at best. Characterization and motivation are both gauche and ludicrous. Scene changes are edited with an alarming abruptness; people swap locations without warning and explanation a LOT. So far, so good. I tend to love the trashiness of these movies. However, this is the first film I have watched where the audio effects are persistently painful. The jarring sounds, interspersed every two or three minutes, are earbendingly harsh and annoying. I read another reviewer call them 'jangly'. They are much, much worse than that! Almost as bad as a pneumatic drill in your living room. We spent most of our time with the remote altering sound levels and getting increasingly irritated.

The sound guy has ruined what could have been an entertainingly trashy, although appallingly edited, movie.

I watched 10 minutes of this movie! It was 10 minutes too long... I would rather watch 2hours of wheel of fortune! The acting if you want to call it that was horrible, the movie quality I hope was low budget.... if it wasn't then even more people need to be fired, I feel ripped off for renting this movie!!! The music gave me a twitch and the acting was less professional than a elementary school play. I don't know how this movie ever made it into production, the director and producers should never be allowed to make a movie ever again. I had to rate it on a scale of 1-10 because 0 wasn't an option :(. I hope people read these reviews before they submit to such horrific movie making.

Only a sense of duty compels me to waste more time on this review. A few others have written comments so well expressed and so on-the- money that I must include some quotable lines:

~Viktor Vedmak (realvedmak) from Canada~ "Whoever made this should either stop making movies or stop doing drugs." "This entire movie is basically extended torture scene." "It really would not surprise me if somebody prone to seizures got one from attempt to watch this crap."

~Robo E from Australia~ "The Acting - OMG, Really what were they thinking. My speak n tell could do a better job."

~mike-ryan455 from United States~ "Amazingly boring mixed with nerve jangling audio!" "You think I am making this up? I wish I were. This one hurt my eyes and my brain. It even hurt my ears with amazingly clanging, jangling noise they called music."

Thanks guys. Your comments not only gave me insight but validation of my own post-viewing impression---(as well as a good laugh-out- loud.) Here's what can add:

1. The screenplay had language, which was meant to support a plot involving hi-tech climate warfare, ominous networks & computer chips, was so awful & sleep-inducing, it sounded like it was transcribed from technical conference meetings at a plumbers' convention---but with substitutions of computer hardware lingo to give it some authenticity.

2. The audio was was an experience worse than the American surge in Iraq--- from the Iraqi side. Also, as the climate attack got underway, loud noises like static discharges, but pumped up in volume, would unrelentingly pop & hiss. Re: Video effects=> Every 2-3 minutes, I'm guessing because of the electromagnetic nature of the attack, the video would be disrupted with electrical interference across the screen like a loud static smear... (this silly audio/video effect was obviously added in post-production editing) It hurt both my eyes, my ears and my sci-fi quality standards.

#3. To sum it up, like the others said, the acting was non-existent. The screenplay was wooden like a used parts manual. But, the female lead Catalina Soto-Aguilar, a newcomer to me, was lovely eye candy... (now you know why I watched it to the end.) So thanks for all the humorous LMAO comments. It seems we agree.

Other reviewers have already listed the negative points of this film, so I'll list what I feel were the positives. I liked the static effects that were used to show the physical impact of frequency distortion. Even though this effect was done on a small budget, when combined with the sound and tape edits, it gave those scenes a feeling of melting reality. I also liked the main theme of the plot, about scientists working on weather control; and also the comedy elements intermixed with some very scary scenarios (though the scariness of these scenarios was never fully realised). I think this could've been a better film with a bigger budget.

Not convincing at all. WHY were there subtitles for the African bloke speaking English? If you think your actor is not understandable then don't employ him - it was annoying and then no subs for the Russian lines. As others have said annoying background "music". Everything about this is bad - the acting, direction, effects, story. All pretty much a non-event. 1/10 (because I can't give it 0.5).