Day of Reckoning (2017)

Must See Movie...

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Tells about 15 years ago, mysterious creatures emerged from the ground and wanted to kill all Mankind. A man tries to save his family from the destruction of the world. I think this film is quite entertaining.

Part of me knew what to expect from 'Day of Reckoning' and that it was meant to be not take it too seriously and take it for what it is films. The idea was a good one and the cover looked cool and a little creepy, so while not expecting much part of me wanted to enjoy it. While there are certainly far worse films than 'Day of Reckoning', even taking it for what it's meant to be it is a major failure and really not a good film at all. There are similar films and low-budget films that have been surprisingly average and above, so actually 'Day of Reckoning' could have been good with the right execution. Instead a good idea is ruined by the terrible way nearly everything is executed and the coolness and creepiness stays in solely in cover and doesn't translate in the film.'Day of Reckoning' at least has occasional splashes of fun and some semi-decent scenery.However, while there has been worse acting it is still poor, both bland and forced. None of the characters are easy to get behind or interesting, it's all very flimsy and any attempts to develop them feel like melodramatic padding. Their decisions and behaviours also don't make sense and they show very little emotion to tense or dramatic situations.Nearly everything severely underwhelms. Not just being visually cheap and poorly acted and written even worse but what seemed like a decent, if very generic, idea was executed in typical fashion, with no imagination whatsoever and only occasional splashes of fun.Faring worse are the production values, story and writing. 'Day of Reckoning', aside from the scenery, is drably shot and sloppily edited, but it's the truly abysmal special effects that are the worst. As the creatures were made on a low-budget it would have been forgiven a little if it was not great, but when the effects for the sharks look as if no effort was given in making them without looking so goofy and unfinished-looking that is hard to ignore or forgive.Can say no better about the portrayal of the creatures either. They exude little personality either, no menace, not even any unintentional goofiness. Generally the attack scenes, apart from the odd mild amusement, are sloppily edited, too brief and devoid of suspense or sense of horror. Moreover, there is no attempt to give them any explanation or development so the motivations and such are confused and vague.It is hard to not take 'Day of Reckoning' seriously, when it itself doesn't know whether to take itself seriously or not. Some parts make earnest attempts to not be stupid but come over as pedestrian and over-serious. Other parts go well overboard on the silliness that one is cringing rather than being entertained.Really wanted to like the story here because the concept was intriguing slightly, but while it starts nicely the further the movie progresses the lazier, cheesier and more formulaic it gets and it gets stale quickly.Overall, very poor. 2/10 Bethany Cox

This is a SyFy made for TV film. Fifteen years ago there was a "day of reckoning" when carnivorous creatures flew and ran out of the earth. Apparently they ate only humans. The fact that the earth was almost destroyed did not stop deep well drilling and fracking, making an unspoken message is here somewhere. An eclipse triggers another event and using the Asylum formula, the film concentrates on one man to unite and save his family, even the ex-wife. Now we know the creatures don't like salt or cold, yet we can't seem to avoid or fight them very well even with a new new Homeland Security to advise us.The film is aimed at the younger male audience who won't attempt to try to make any sense out of this, just enjoy the special effects and occasional human being attacked and consumed. They managed to recruit seasoned actors such as Raymond J. Barry and Barbara Crampton for lesser roles. Don't look for anything deep in theme, just breakout the popcorn.Guide: No sex or nudity. There was a whisper that sounded like an F-word.

The good points:1 It takes itself seriously, it is not a daft parody of science fiction like Sharknado.2 Interesting premise - millions of monsters from deep beneath the Earth's crust rise up world wide during some eclipses to eat people.3 Good dialogue and acting. Generally not bad direction and editing.4 Several types of monster (avian, bovine, humanoid, small worm things, giant worm things) suggest a subterranean ecosystem somewhere.5 Okay CGI. Vast hordes are depicted with conviction. Close-up hand to hand battles, less so.The problems:1 There is no attempt to understand or explain the creatures, which a sci-fi or horror film ought to try to do. Some people think they are literal demons, which some people would, but why would subterranean creatures react to a total eclipse they cannot possibly detect? Is it because they really are supernatural? I can see why cold would bother them but why salt? Salt is a traditional weapon against magical threats, again suggesting a supernatural nature. They decay rapidly into red mulch when dead but nobody mentions this, making me think this was added at the CGI stage and was not in the script.2 Just one is seen at night apparently either dead or paralysed, but mysteriously still intact. Nothing is made of this potentially intriguing episode.3 Several action scenes are missing short vital events necessary to make the scenes flow and make sense. Easily fixable, so why weren't they? Was it edited in a rush?It still manages to be one of the best SyFy channel movies.