Terminus (2016)

Instant Favorite.

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

This was a really great film. The background is that America is embroiled in an awful war with Iran. True to reality, Iran has nuclear weapons. The threat of nuclear war is imminent. The movie is about an alien space artichoke communicating telepathically with a man. He is told through his late wife (he couldn't handle a giant alien artichoke talking to him in his dreams. "Contact" has already established this) that he needs to build a cement mixer and put then space artichoke inside of it. It actually ends up being a reverse incubator that preserves a man, a woman and one space artichoke that contains all the DnA for every life form in earth. Nuclear war comes and goes. After fallout is over the cement mixer opens up and humanity starts again via Adam and Eve mk 2.I really liked this movie. The characters were believable and slightly tragic. The Australian director really portrayed American small town red necks well. Maybe Antipodean rednecks have similar qualities? The are a few glaring loopholes in the plot that are resolved in the ending of the movie. The war in Iran is dealt with like the very unpopular Vietnam conflict. A disabled veteran is spit on by a redneck. It was very powerful and shocking. The vet was protesting the war. That may have been why he was spit upon. The war results in 23 soldiers KiA daily. It is a very grim situation.The movie was not perfect. I gave it eight stars for the humanity and the reality of the situation in the film. The bad guy was fairly flat in motivation (just like Negan). If you read this before the film you just ruined the entire movie. I still recommend watching it. It was great science fiction.

Terminus (2016) is a mediocre low-budget sci-fi film. When judging a film, I will always take the budget into consideration. I will also consider how difficult it is to make a movie with an extremely low- budget. Now taking that into consideration, 'Terminus' still isn't that good of a movie. The plot was fine, but it was very jumbled at times. The ending was very abrupt and it felt like it could have been built up more. The acting was bad, and the lead actress was absolutely horrendous. The direction wasn't poor, and there were many great looking shots. What I liked the most was the practical effects. While they did not look realistic, I absolutely love it when filmmakers choose to use practical effects over digital effects. There were some CGI shots in the film, and they looked jarringly fake. While it was refreshing to see the practical effects, the CGI stood out like a sore thumb. 'Terminus' isn't a good movie, but it isn't the worst sci-fi film of the year.

Yeah, you can find a lot of problems with this film, from some of the characters being too cliché to the (I can't believe I'm saying this) lack of special effects, in a few scenes, that would have added weight to the movie. Still, it isn't bad at all and, most important, it delivers more than you expect. It has a good plot twist, it keeps you guessing and makes you think you got it - but you'll find out you didn't. I think it's the best a small budget, unknown actors (but they are actors, not Richard Grieco...), and aspiring writers and director can get. It may not be of Spielberg value, but it's on an honest path towards it.

"You're like every other hick in this town. Full of opinions on things you know nothing about. Scared of losing what you think you have. And what's that? A future."You feel like watching a Science Fiction that makes you think back to classics like "Cocoon" or "The invasion of the body snatchers"? Well, you need to give this Australian low-budget indie a chance. Just so you know it in advance, it's not particularly innovative and it's not filled with breathtaking special effects. Yet I found it an enjoyable film to watch in between. Unfortunately it was fairly predictable, certain performances weren't the best of the best and the concept was again post-apocalyptic. The whole story revolves around the mechanic David (Jai Koutrae) and his daughter Annabelle (Kendra Appleton). Due to the loss of his wife, David has a serious drinking problem and a fairly desperate family situation. A conflict in the Middle East ensures that the economy is falling apart and the overall world peace is endangered. While driving through the night, David witnesses a crashing meteorite. He loses control over his steering wheel and ends up in the hospital. The next morning his injuries seem to be healed and in a miraculous way, a kidney he donated to save his wife grew back. After several visions, he takes it upon himself to build a capsule with the help of Zach (Todd Lasance), a disabled war veteran. It sounds a bit like when Noah was given the divine command to build an ark, in order to secure the survival of the human race.Although this film takes place in the U.S., the majority of the actors are Australian and everything was filmed in Portland and Sydney. If I hadn't read it somewhere, I wouldn't have known it. In most films, aliens visiting our planet, don't have friendly intentions. In "Terminus" on the other hand, the alien phenomenon is anything but hostile. It's rather helpful and has healing powers. And again there's an agency (the National Science Agency) that tries anything to get hold of this meteorite. In that way they could produce unbeatable combat troops.Obviously this film was made with a limited budget. But despite this limitation, the makers managed to deliver a sound film. The doomsday scenario is subtly mixed throughout the story with strategically placed newsflashes about the developments in the Middle East. Only the end was quite self-evident. In terms of performances only the NSA agents were weak and portrayed in an ordinary and pathetic way. It was the interaction between David and Zach that provided some highlights. A piece of advice won't harm : Lower your expectations before you watch this movie. More reviews here : http://bit.ly/1KIdQMT