Humanity's End (2009)

Redundant and unnecessary.

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Expected more

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

I had to laugh when previewing my review, given all of the criticisms I've listed, you would think I didn't actually LIKE this film, but I did. This is NOT the worst movie ever, not at all, but you have to bear with me (and with the movie) to get to the "good" parts. If you are that kind of movie-watcher, you can enjoy this film, if not well...then take a pass. Not sure? If you can read through my list of complaints all the way down to the POSITIVE points, then you could very well enjoy this film as well as I did. While admittedly a mixed bag: special effects are cheap--something you might have seen in the 80's! On top of that, the editing is sometimes jarring or even just bizarre- - particularly as it spends far too much time focusing on those same distressingly undeveloped effects. It's obviously an extremely low budget film, and this editing choice makes that much more obvious. One of the other things that really hurts the film from the very start is the extremely loooooooooong voice over introduction which sets the setting for the story (and they don't even bother with their cheap special effects while they do it--other than an awful (particularly irritating) electronic voice modulator. Jeez! Show, don't tell! It really spoils the movie (and sets it up for failure) by boring the audience before the story even gets started. If absolutely necessary (given budget restraints) it certainly could have been edited to it's most salient points. If you don't care about the back story then just fast-forward through that part, I don't think it will hurt the movie that much if you do, but it will dump you into the middle of a conflict that might not make much sense--just trust me, there is a reason for what they do, even if (a big if!) it is supposed to make sense within the context of the history they set up for the story. Frankly as far as I was concerned, this didn't really help the plot anyway, so I'd just skip it. After all, wars are seemingly a part of human nature, so it doesn't seem that much of a stretch to assume even altered humans (supposedly "advanced" humans) would continue to stir up (or even thrive on) conflict and even enslavement. Just depends on if you can enjoy the story without context. Most of what happens will make sense without the history, though parts at the end might not without context. Since I DID watch the intro, I can't really tell you, though I think there are enough hints scattered through the story to help. Fair warning.The creature/alien human costume(s) (if you can call it that) was just bizarre and out of place for a supposedly advanced form of human. It didn't make sense. Fortunately there are few of those, and the rest of the costuming didn't stand out--which in this case is a good thing. The sets also didn't stand out--but seemed logical for the time and place. Props: I had to laugh at the use of one of their big assed guns as the actress waved it around as if it was made out of plastic and weighed nothing. You'll know what I'm talking about when you see it. Not likely, even in the future. Fortunately there are few moments like these, and again, they don't particularly stand out-- which in this case is a compliment.The music however, DID stand out, and not in a good way; it didn't help at all (especially when combined with the poor editing, overly long intro, and the other problems I've mentioned). The music was jarring yet boringly generic--not particularly loud, just inappropriate-- or even too sacchrine for the moment. It just didn't fit and by taking your attention away from the film made the other problems just that more obvious.On the other hand, While the overall plot wasn't particularly original, and the acting was sometimes hit and miss (I think it was more a failure of editing and direction than of the actors--mostly editing); the dialogue (forget the intro) and the main actors interjected appropriate nuance to their (almost) fully-fleshed characters (not the usual cardboard cut-out stereotypes which was a nice change-- especially for such a low budget film), and were pretty decent (if not Oscar material). While the overall plot wasn't particularly original,the characters were recognizable without being generic. Parts of the dialogue certainly raised the caliber of the film above the norm, and the characterizations (including the hints of backstory) made them interesting and relatable. Most of all I liked the interaction between the characters and their actions were consistent within the storyline, without being generically predictable. It's the characters and how the actors played them that saved this film.Overall I enjoyed the movie, even with it's flaws. Definitely NOT the worst movie ever--it's certainly not a "must see", but not as bad as some of the reviewers suggest. Believe me, I"ve seen FAR worse. Take it for what it is and you can enjoy it.

Don't let the small budget fool you, in the end it doesn't matter that much.Despite the limited budget, this movie is beautiful, and the story is intriguing. They did quite a remarkable feat with what they had and the obvious 'lack of funding' problems can be easy to ignore :)That being said, the lack of polishing does show, the storyline is slightly "jumpy", skipping ahead, things not leading up as expected, certain areas by far didn't get enough attention, and some things got almost zero attention (You'll SEE what i mean later on the movie), because they obviously ran out of of money. The cast is too small, they don't have enough extras etc.I really would like to see this story as a fully polished product, and more movies of "this universe". The setup is quite a possibility what could happen to human kind in the coming centuries.

I like sci-fi. I also like trashy sci-fi as long as there is some redeeming qualities. But I don't like trash and unfortunately that is all I can call this movie. I actually enjoyed Battlefield Earth a lot more than this and I rarely regret having watched something, even when it's that bad. It boggles the mind how they could screw it up this much, since the background story is not that bad, post-human races behaving like alien invaders, I like that. Special effects are OK, and the locations, costumes, and make-up are also decent. I'm even willing to believe the actors could come off better. It's just a terrible, terrible script, where the characters are constantly sitting around discussing tedious personal (mushy) subjects while the genocide of the human race is supposedly going on. And the fact that the main character is Han Solo like Don Johnson would have portrayed him does not help at all. This could have been in Serenity-range, instead it's making Battlefield Earth look good. This is what Uwe Boll would make if someone (god forbid) got him to do a sci-fi movie. This is Mortal Kombat 2 bad.

Considering it's budget I didn't think it was that bad, don't get me wrong, it's not going to win any awards and a lot of people will think it's terrible I expect but it reminded me of all those old movies that tried to cash in on the tail of Star Wars when it first came out like Battle Beyond the Stars.Perhaps I'm just a sucker for female voiced computers from Nell in BBTS, to Majel Barrett Roddenberry (RIP) voice in Star Trek and now Blue.The plot was fairly basic, the script was weak and the acting was up and down but overall I still enjoyed it enough to not fall asleep.