Apocalypse Earth

But, I've seen worse, too, although I can't remember exactly when. As has already been pointed out, the acting was not great, although there were a couple of bright spots. Though there was an interesting germ of an idea at the core of this story, the writing was horrible. However, I think the more seasoned actors did the best with what they had. Both Adrian Paul and Richard Grieco have been around for years and have had some pretty good projects in the past and they clearly made an effort. With that said, I'll give it one star for the writing, one for the acting and two more for the two best things about this movie - the Costa Rican scenery and Bali Rodriguez, which I guess could also be considered Costa Rican scenery.

Every time the Asylum releases a new movie, some pseudo film 'expert' declares it to be 'the worst movie ever made', 'scraping the bottom of the barrel', or some other such derogatory garbage. Well, none of these comments are true - what about the 50's B- Movies in which the alien was a man in a gorilla suit with a diving helmet on his head? Or 'Run For Your Wife'?

The truth is that the Asylum is expert at extracting the most movie from the least money, and no film illustrates this more than AE Apocalypse Earth. In 90 minutes it draws from Predator, Avatar and After Earth, utilising a decent lead man (Adrian Paul), passable CGI, exotic locations, and far from the worst script and direction I've seen, all for a budget not exceeding $1m.

Sure, it's never going to win any awards, and is best regarded as a 'Saturday night after a few drinks' kind of movie, but let's put an end to this Asylum-bashing. Let's see you do better!

(And remember this - the Asylum has never lost money on a movie. How many other studios can say that? I suspect none.)

I will get right to the point. IMDb states that the estimated budget for this film was $350,000. If that is correct, someone stuffed most of that cash in their pocket because it sure wasn't spent on real production costs.

This film has the look, feel, and sound of a film school project. The photography, cinematography, sound, sound effects, visual effects, and acting are so below par that it is hard to take this film seriously.

I could point out specifics but that would take much too long since there is very little about this film that actually works.

Basically, start at the beginning, the script; terrible. The actors; amateurs. The photography; shaky and uninspired. The direction; film school project that got a D.

"AE: Apocalypse Earth" is, unfortunately, a truly poor attempt at a post-apocalyptic sci-fi. The writing is severely lacking, and the acting - if one can even call it that - gives the impression that the cast was simply pulled off the street. Beyond the performances, the storyline itself is disjointed and uninspired, failing to create any compelling narrative. To make matters worse, the CGI is laughably bad, detracting significantly from any attempt at immersion.

Richard Grieco was the only actor I recognized, and while his performance was passable, the overwhelming lack of acting skill from everyone else, combined with the abysmal storyline and visual effects, ultimately dooms the movie. It's a production that fails to deliver on almost every front.

Save yourself the time and effort; do not waste your time on this one.

That is saying very little however as After Earth was so poorly done, the worst movie personally seen so far this year with one of the worst ever child performances. As bad as it is though it is a masterpiece compared to the irredeemable dreck that is AE: Apocalypse Earth, one of those Asylum mock-busters that happens to "taking inspiration from" After Earth. AE: Apocalypse Earth is not quite down there with The Asylum's worst movies but it's in the lower end. If there is one glint of a redeeming quality it's some competent photography at the end. Visually, it is not good at all and that it's low-budget comes through loud and clear. The scenery is very dully rendered and lit, never once drawing us into the setting, while the special effects look as they were made last minute and that the makers ran out of time to properly finish them and the photography and editing in general are an eyesore. The music is generic and forgettable, sometimes derivative also of the score for After Earth(the least bad thing about that film), while the sound effects and quality are murky. The dialogue is often total gibberish, somebody really needs to check that what they're writing makes any kind of sense, and is cheesy and stilted as well. Seeing as this is The Asylum we're talking about, the lack of originality(not just After Earth, Predators and Avatar as well) is something you eventually have to accustom to- no matter how frustrating it is- but the story still fails to be exciting, emotionally investing or remotely interesting for that matter. Instead it is as plodding as the story for After Earth, has the same nonsense and questionable science you expect for the Asylum and any dramatic scenes are mawkish and forced. The characters are not memorable or likable in the slightest, a few are even annoying, the fact that levels of characterisation itself are next to non-existent is a large part of the problem. The direction is flat and characterless, and the acting is so bad from everybody involved it's not worth commenting on, ranging from bored-sounding to irritating. In conclusion, horrible from start to finish. 1/10 Bethany Cox