AE: Apocalypse Earth (2013)

Good concept, poorly executed.

Admirable film.

A Masterpiece!

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

This is an Asylum film (not the one with Will Smith) which incorporates several other films or film pieces. There is a twist 10 minutes from the end which you figure out 10 minutes from the beginning, and I am going to great lengths (ugh!) not to reveal it Scooby-doo, although for most Sc-Fi fans if you know there is a twist, you know the twist. Sorry.Earth is under attack by aliens. A large ship, the Albert Einstein (AE) manages to escape with a handful of people who go into cryo-sleep. The next thing we know they are on a pod, crash landing on a planet. This planet contains a race of invisible hunters called "Chameleons." There are locals and survivors from another space craft. Our group of hardy explorers are aided by Lea (Bali Rodriguez) because Pocahontas would be too obvious. There is also an android called TIM (Gray Hawks) who acts like he came from "Next Generation." Yes, "There are some who call me... Tim."The goal of our group is to find a craft that didn't crash, get back to the mother ship in orbit and head on back to Earth...and kill as many Chameleons, giant CG bugs, and CG lizards as then can along the way.The plot sounds great, but the acting and dialogue was dry. They created bad cardboard stereotypes when there was no need to do so. The film appears to be a TV pilot for a SyFy series. The execution misses the mark. Kids and SyFy movie fans might like it.Parental Guide: No f-bombs, sex, or nudity.

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.)

This movie would have served as a Star Trek TNG movie. There were too many familiar characters. The android TIM was/is Data in every way... Or they should have changed that android character completely, and I don't mean turning him into a hologram like in Star Trek VGR or a robot like Star Wars C3PO. For this movie to work, this was the most important change needed.The bikini clad jungle girl should had been naked, I know she practically was, but it would have made more sense.The "chameleons" were too much like Arnold Schwarzenegger's Predator. I understand the low budget, but too many things are too... lets just say .. unoriginal. Even if they gave to chameleons a hue, or an aura. SOMETHING!The movie was actually pretty good if you overlooked the poor quality CGI and the complete ripoff on Star Trek's Data, Arnold Schwarzenegger's Predator, and the original The Planet of the Apes' ending, but I liked it. Do NOT take this movie seriously, nor expect too much, and you'll be surprised its actually something from Asylum.

So you can best understand the title of this review, let me explain Thunder Levin's "Sharknado". The film features sharks that wait around for Pacific Ocean hurricanes to pick them up and deposit them in Southern California. It features a great deal of dry land shark attacks and even one shark that is able to climb a nylon rope.Thank GOD none of that occurs in "AE: Apocalypse Earth". This movie starts with the Earth under attack by aliens and Noah's Space Ark leaving with some grouchy mercenary who just wants to get back to Earth. What no escape pod?The effects are very poor CGI, so don't expect much there. The one- million dollar budget, must have been spent on the body spray for Bali Rodriguez. Most of the time, she is on screen makes me wonder, if they glued the bikini to her nipples. As much time as she spends in the water, they should have use water proof body paints.The explosive crash of the ship makes you wonder how anyone survived without a scratch. There were other flaws, other than the acting, some geeky science that will make even the amateur star gazer laugh. When the crew from the two ships talk about their destinations. The first ship was heading to Alpha Centauri and they state that it has 3 star system but Alpha Centauri is a binary system with only two. The other group say they left for Barnard's Star and claim it is a binary system. Barnard's Star is a red dwarf star about six light-years away from Earth.I caught this "Jane of the Jungle" epic on Netflix today. I guess it's not like I am out any real money. But I wouldn't expect anyone to enjoy watching this unless you are into low budget Tarzan movies.