Taking Earth

Ran across this while browsing Netflix...as one does. There are a lot of bad movies out there, this is not Killer Mermaid bad, but it's pretty close. When you watch this film it'll be as though you're watching a badly dubbed Chinese flick from the 70's. The acting is atrocious, under- acted AND over- acted, it was as though the actors didn't know the language they where speaking at all. The cinematography is bland. There's awkward, badly done humor at very inappropriate times. The dialogue in general is lackluster. The special effects are nice but stand out against the flat lighting, making them the brightest thing...which is usually a good thing...right? But not in this case. The camera that was used could have worked if there had been better lighting and maybe some more even color correcting done. The concept was good but was wasted. Now to the positive. It is very difficult to create a feature film, especially when (judging only by the quality) it seems this is a group of people who didn't really know exactly what they where doing (I hope). Yet they all came together and created something. That's pretty darn cool and should be congratulated. In 10 years this will be a film you'll not want anyone to remember because you'll have created things that are so much better. I look forward to that because, even though this is very bad, there is promise in the production team. Hopefully for the actors too, if they get a ton more acting lessons...they really, really need them... All that being said I'll end with this: Congratulations to all who put time and effort...and money into this. You have a completed project! Now go make better things! And to everyone else, don't watch this one. Wait till their next thing comes out, it'll be better, hopefully.

CONTAINS SMALL SPOILER Hubby brought the DVD because the cover looked good with an alien/robot thing advancing towards you on the picture and quotes saying "Doesnt skimp out on the effects" "A wild ride that everyone will enjoy" "Complex visual effects". What a load of smeg! The acting was just awful. It's like the actors hadnt learnt their script and they were reading it as they were acting. Very un- natural. I'm not just talking a few actors but ALL. The "special effects" were so CGI they were laughable. Not realistic at all. They make-up was terrible. The baddies (aliens) had black panda eyes to distinguish them from being human. We watched about 20 minutes hoping it would get better. Don't WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY ON THIS FILM.

Not "so bad it's funny", not "so bad it's good". Not even the right kind of bad for MST3K. It's just terrible script, acting, makeup, etc. The director should be kicked out of the guild. The actors should be banned from SAG-AFTRA. The only people involved that probably pulled their weight are the camera operators, foleys, caterers, and location scouts. Poor casting deserves criticism but the performances and signing off on the script falls on the director. WTF were they thinking?

This Movie is so bad, that I felt I had to comment. This Film should be used as a tool for Film teachers, to teach students that even if you have a good crew, good special effects, a reasonable story and a half decent script, if the Director does a poor job of managing Actors, Script, and direction, you can end up with a big pile of stable droppings. The dialogue seems bad in this film, but that could be in the way these Actors deliver it. At the start of this movie, it seems like almost every actor in this film, got up one morning and decided to try their hand at acting, because this is very unlikely, the blame must be placed firmly on the shoulders of the Director. This Director manages to get stilted, wooden performances out of the entire ensemble. The story is at times, hard to follow due to the stiff performances. Aliens and Humans alike, are all portrayed a bit off center, so it is hard to separate friend from foe. All in all, a 1 star rating for this Film, I found it surprising that Netflix were offering this film to it's customers.

I'm going to be honest and admit I have the attention span of a betta fish. So when I was watching this, I was also trying to figure out how to crossover two of my favorite fandoms into fan fiction (that I never wrote, so don't ask). But, ultimately, I didn't find this movie to be completely awful. I mean, it certainly wasn't the quality of a major blockbuster, nor was the writing great, but, in a world where we expect every single movie to be worthy of a box office hit, this movie was nice. It had a good concept, interesting story, and yeah, it could have been a little bit better, but, A for effort.

This is one of the most awful movies I have watched.. The scenario is badly written and acting is very very bad. I think that this film is lacking a lot of emotions especially considering that chaos is everywhere because of the invasion.I was fully disappointed overall. But regarding the cost of the movie, I consider it like a not so bad amateur film.

And I had to turn this off, it is SO un-watchable. It's an interesting premise. Aliens have taken control of the Earth. So, what happens next? How so we resist? Well, I don't know how this was answered in 'Taking Earth', because I had to bail out after about a half hour or so. Just couldn't take it any more. Now, to be fair, maybe I couldn't do any better at making a movie. I'm not a director or producer. But I'm pretty sure I could do as well. So could my Labrador Retriever.

Totally agree with the reviews before, this movie is flawed on so many levels, and yet, like the other guys, I watched it to the end. And that alone makes it worth 5 stars for me. Usually I stop immediately watching when the thought "this is bad" pops up in my head, but here i kept watching. Extra star for some OK action, even a bit of OK humor and the cgi wasn't that good but it didn't make me cringe either. All of this strategically well placed in the first half of the movie that carried me until the end in expectation of more - but that didn't come. Instead, the overall dialogue went from bad to omg, story completely collapsed and this tentative gay thing the two male characters had going was quite distracting, because I don't think it was supposed to look gay. Probably the result of the generally not so great acting (being polite here). Anyway, when I make it to the end it usually means it was entertaining of sorts and this is true for Taking Earth. Obviously they had a very limited budget and that excuses a lot, but not everything. Would I recommend it? Hmm, it made a lasting impression on me and led to my first review here, so yes, if you like Sci-fi go ahead and watch and learn.

This is will soon be on Science mystery 3000. The actors and actress are more wooden than an oak tree. The editing makes a mess for any story I can only think the Netflix buyer had this thing thrown in with some other better films. Just please don't watch you will lose brain cells. IFyou must get stoned as the scenery and landscape of i think SA. good luck

Well I have to concur with most reviews here, this is not a great movie which is a shame as I think it could have been. Most people use the term "wooden" when they write about peoples acting ability in certain roles and for the most part, they are not just wooden but petrified. The main character played by a young man, Marco Tolage definitely shows some promise with throwing all his emotions in to the last scenes. The story is one told since time of fables began, that of a savior in one form or another, just like King Arthur was the savior and even in TV series like Once Upon a time, we have a savior, so classic good vs evil but the threat is from alien's. It would have been good if the writer could have explored more about the reason for the bad guys rather than some one liner near the end. For Sc-Fi people, it's watchable but yes, do not think it will blow your socks off. Children with less movie going experience may like it as the script is short and really, not many people speak more than one line of 5-7 words.

From time to time, there will be a special effect spectacle, linked together by characters in unlikely situations explaining the story line via stilted dialogue. Scenes are cut together oddly, such as characters being pursued in a crowded city at night, then we suddenly see them in broad day light in a rural setting. The cast perform like people collected at random and given dialogue to recite a moment before the single take used to capture the scene. There were a couple of quality props, but over all the production communicated a lack of budget. I felt I had to give it a 2 out of 10 because the images were in focus and the sound quality was good. There was nothing compelling about the story. None of the characters were developed to the point where anyone would care about them. Hopefully everyone was paid well to create this mess of a movie.