The End (2012)

Memorable, crazy movie

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The acting in this movie is really good.

I watched this film with English subtitles, so I may have missed some of the subtleties in the original Spanish. However, I don't feel that the film suffered in any way.A group of friends gather for a weekend to renew 'friendships' from 20 years ago, and the reunion isn't going well - if someone stripped naked and threw their clothes on the bonfire I'd be thinking it was time everyone went to bed. Just before the party disintegrates there's a loud noise, strange lights in the sky and everything stops working, everything.With no power, so no lights and no phones, everyone goes to bed. In the morning there is one person missing. He just disappeared. The group make for the nearest town and on the way they start to disappear, one by one. Eventually we're down to the last few, and the film ends.There's no explanation for the power cuts, what the lights were, why people are disappearing, why the people are disappearing in the order they are, why only people are disappearing and not birds and animals and why most people disappear when nobody is looking at them. There's no explanation at all. Nothing. Nada. Zilch.With the lack of explanation, all you're left with is the journey, and I did find some of the journey interesting. I wasn't that interested in the interactions of the characters and, as usual, I'm glad some of them disappeared. I think I detected a pattern as to the order people disappeared in, but some people vanished in the night, so I'm not entirely sure. As the dwindling group move from their holiday home across a gorge and towards the nearest town there are some good moments: a vulture makes an unexpected appearance and death by goats is a novelty I wasn't expecting.Sadly, with no explanation, and no real ending, the film is a complete let down. However, until the very end I found the film worth watching, with moments of slowly-building tension, the unexplained disappearances to fathom out, and some great scenery to watch. However, when you get to the end and nothing is explained, watching the film just becomes a very flat experience.This is the way the film ends, not with a bang but a whimper.

It's difficult for me to review a Spanish film... in English. That's the thing with cultural imperialism, I guess: it's a symptom of how many projects tend do disappear or be disregarded only because they've been done in a language other to English. Apart from my opinion on how IMDb.com works, this is a perfect introduction to this film. Many of the comments not only on this website but around the net compare this with the typical Hollywood blockbuster on every level: acting, special effects, screen writing, budget, etc... It doesn't escape my attention that I'm doing the same right now. Make no mistake: this is not an independent project. Official Spanish cinema has to watch its money a lot, and this film does that. Probably, money likes at the core of many creative decisions taken while preparing this film. There is a very small group of performers, and the sci-fi gets lost in so many natural landscapes. There is something abstract about the mystery: there is no enemy, no psycho-killer which has decided to terminate with everybody, it's just a kind of psychological desperation which causes people to fade into oblivion and just disappear. Specially ridiculous was the case of the biker who just fades onto thin air, leaving the wheels of her bike moving. So no blood or difficult stunts to perform, probably less repetition on the performers' sides when filming. The only scene in which x-effects are visible is in the scene of the fallen plane. They're static, though. Only part of the scenery. What remains is a slow-pace which reminded me of The Sixth Sense, and a plot which leaves plenty of questions to decide on part of the audience. For all that, I liked it to a certain extent. I've seen much worse, but also much better. It's a good effort by Spanish cinema industry, at a certain levels much better that the typical Hollywood cr*p which rules the box office.

After twenty years, Sara (Carmen Ruiz) invites her friends to reunite again in the same isolated cabin where they met for the last time. Félix (Daniel Grao) goes with the younger escort Eva (Clara Lago) posing of his girlfriend; his ex-girlfriend Maribel (Maribel Verdú) leaves her two children with her mother and travels with her husband Rafa (Antonio Garrido); the wolf Hugo (Andrés Velencoso) travels with his wife Cova (Blanca Romero); the lonely pothead Sergio (Miquel Fernández) travels alone. Sara is worried since their friend Ángel "Prophet" (Eugenio Mira) has not arrived yet. There is a secret about something that happened twenty years ago with the prophet that was the reason to keep them apart.During the night, the group is around a bonfire and Ángel never shows up, and Sara discloses that it was Ángel's idea to gather his friends on that day. Out of the blue, there is a lighting followed by thunder and all the power is cut – batteries of cellular have run down; the cars have flat batteries and the group argues. Soon Eva learns that twenty years ago, Ángel was forced to consume drugs that have seriously affected him. He became violent and started to foresee the end of the world, ending in an asylum. None of his friends but Sara has ever visited him in the institution, and they first believe that Ángel has plotted an evil scheme against them. One the next morning, Rafa vanishes and they believe he has walked to the nearby town and the group decides to do the same. But soon, each one of them disappears in the end of the days."Fin" is an intriguing and very well acted Spanish thriller, with Maribel Verdú that is one of my favorite Spanish actresses and the unknown Clara Lago, one of the most beautiful new faces in the cinema industry. Unfortunately, the pointless conclusion gave me the same sensation I had when "Lost" ended. The writers succeeded in creating the engaging mystery but without any answer to the events but the simplistic explanation of the apocalyptic end of the world, with Eva apparently surviving. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Fim dos Tempos" ("End of the Times")

I really enjoyed this movie. The directing was exceptional and the acting was excellent. Also, the cinematography was extremely visually satisfying and the film quality was good. Some of the scenery in the movie was beautiful. The movie does not have the "B" movie feel at all. I was gripped from the beginning and intrigued until the end. The movie is interpretive so expect that the answers to the most important questions are woven into the story line. If you're left with a question at the end of the movie, ask if the answer is important to the ultimate message delivered by the story. The point is, this movie is enjoyable to watch, highly entertaining, and eloquently conveys the sci-fi theme. Kudos to the writers and director and all the crew.