Paul Magne Haakonsen
Right, another fabulous disaster movie, where the Earth is at the brink of extinction, and yet is miraculously saved by a group of very unlikely American heroes...Yes, that is what I thought as well when I sat down to watch "Earth's Final Hours". And I was right, as this movie turned out to be every bit just that."Earth's Final Hours" follows the shamelessly abused blueprint of how-to-make-a-generic-disaster-movie, true! However, it does manage to lift itself up and out of the mediocrity that tends to permeate the disaster movie genre. There just was something a bit more enjoyable and watchable to "Earth's Final Hours".The story, well, it can be summarized fairly easy. Actually, just read my opening statement, and you have the entire movie summarized right there.It was the fast pace of the movie and the progression of the storyline that actually made "Earth's Final Hours" stand out where many other disaster movies failed and sunk deep into mediocrity. But also the acting performances, as they weren't as generic and mediocre as they tend to be in this genre.As for the special effects, well let's just say that they had CGI special effects and that these effects served their purpose well enough. However, it is not effects that will blow you away or leave you impressed in any way. So don't get your hopes up.I was actually quite surprised with the performance that Robert Knepper put on in "Earth's Final Hours", because he really carried the movie quite nicely. And it was also nice to see Bruce Davison here as well, although his character was a very generic one to say the least - not saying that his performance was generic, just the character."Earth's Final Hours" is not the best of disaster movies, it is nowhere near the likes of "2012" or "San Andreas" in terms of CGI and entertainment where you just sit back and enjoy the effects. However, it did distinguish itself from many other generic disaster movies.If you enjoy the disaster movie genre, and if you have nothing better to do or to watch, then take the time to watch "Earth's Final Hours". I was actually quite entertained by it.
realdealblues
I don't understand why so many people post negative reviews on some of these SyFy Channel movies. These movies aren't made to be blockbusters. I don't take any of them seriously. They're meant to be entertaining, and more often than not, "mindless" entertainment that you can often sit back and have a few laughs with on a Saturday or Sunday evening.Unlike many reviewers, I actually "enjoy" watching SyFy Channel movies. Knowing how cheaply they are made and how far out some of them are makes them all the more entertaining. That being said, some are still better than others. Quiet a few of the newer ones have been very enjoyable to me, and this one was no exception.It's science fiction, not science fact and I was entertained for an hour and a half. I won't go into the plot as you can read that under the main page, but if you like watching SyFy Channel Disaster movies like myself, than you will probably feel it was time well spent. If you don't like "out there" plot lines, low budget effects and some bad acting then don't watch it and stick with "Hollywood" style films.
Nathan Bridger
Quick Summary: It's a bomb.This is yet another of the mind-numbing, inane films penned by writers who couldn't find their own heads with both hands and a "brainless twit" detector, and cranked out on a far-too-regular basis by the SyFy channel.I shall not dwell on the acting, because let's face it: Who can concentrate on the acting when your neurons are recoiling in horror at the lines the actors are forced, (I suspect, at gunpoint), to say? Nor shall I long dwell on the laughably lame-brained scene in which a scientist with an enormous hole through his chest, (front-to-back, and through which, even Stevie Wonder could chuck a football), manages somehow, (chortle), to gasp out his final words, (which are, of course, cryptic--even though they are the key to "the very survival of mankind itself").Incredibly, (by comparison with the next eighty minutes), that scene is one of the more believable moments in this disgrace. There is not a single shred of even grade-school scientific knowledge evident in this--supposedly, science fiction--film.I felt considerable sympathy for the actors, most of whom, I feel sure, have sequestered themselves in remote caves, living on lichens and grubs rather than show themselves in public after this. Frankly, if I found myself cast in such an embarrassingly dreadful flick, my first thought would be to cast my agent into an active volcano.The main premise--if you stoop to call it that--is that the Earth suddenly, instantly, stops rotating about its axis, (the mechanism by which this occurs is so dim-witted as not to be worthy of serious mention). Oddly, most people don't seem notice this drastic event, save for one or two who wonder why the sun is still overhead at midnight.So. If the Earth *were* to stop suddenly, wouldn't you mention it to someone? Well, no, as it turns out, because you wouldn't be alive to do so--having been killed within microseconds as a result of the catastrophe.Though you don't notice, (because it rotates *with* the Earth at the same speed), the atmosphere travels at a speed of about 1,100 miles-per-hour at the equator. Even if the Earth could, somehow, instantly stop rotating, the atmosphere wouldn't; suddenly supersonic winds, would sweep the Earth clear of you, your house, forests, skyscrapers, politicians, the entire body of work of Jerry Lewis, and the offices of the SyFy channel.Even ignoring the reality of those winds, your own inertia would fling you into the stratosphere, along with every car, locomotive, building, oil tanker and chupacabra on the planet. But wait! There's more!The Earth masses some six sextillion tons: If it suddenly came to a screeching halt, well, the energy of that tremendous inertia has to go somewhere--and so it would. It would be expressed as heat. Lots of heat. We're talking a mind-bogglingly amount of heat, here. The entire planet would become almost instantaneously molten.Between inertia, the hyper-hurricane winds and the all-encompassing lava, nothing whatsoever would survive: Not even that inedible fruitcake that gets re-gifted and passed on to successive generations during the holidays.There is more than a century of excellent science fiction available--much in the public domain. Why, instead of harvesting that treasure-trove and producing works of quality, the executives at SyFy keep foisting such imbecility as "Earth's Final Hours" onto the public is an utter mystery. And an insult.Not to mock to the Vietnam War protests, I nonetheless appeal to SyFy to "Stop The Bombing."Did I mention the movie was awful?
