* SPOILER EMBEDDED AND SIGN POSTED HALF WAY DOWN *
A sci-fi film from New Zealand, a country not renowned for such things but nevertheless, Quiet Earth soon addresses all that.
Zac, a scientist, or astronomer, wakes up one morning to find himself very much on his todd. The neighbourhood, the town, the country and probably the world is all his.
After the initial rush of being able to do whatever he wants he begins to realise that materialism counts for nought without some form of human interaction. By the time we reach the middle of the film Zac is on the way to being 4 beers short of a six-pack!
So far so good. The film intrigues us, fascinates us, and makes us wonder what it would be like if we were in Zac's shoes. However, the second reel is somewhat of a disappointment.
Zac finally meets two other adults - a man & woman, and all three try to comprehend what has happened to the world, but also how the two men try to win the affections of the woman.
For about 40 minutes not a lot happens apart from lots of psycho babble, male posturing & bickering. Only at the very end does it really "hit" you, especially after Zac decides to blow up his research lab to see if it will cure Earth's problem.
******* SPOILER - MISS THE NEXT SECTION *********
The explosion is timed perfectly with a massive surge of solar energy from the Sun, which may have triggered the initial problem right at the beginning of the film when Zac and his scientists did some experimental work of their own against the Sun.
The explosion coupled with the Solar Surge seems to have created a wormhole - which is a cosmological possibility in reality - that sucks Zac through a space/time event horizon and dumps him on what seems to be another habitable planet on a differnt solar system -
the scene on the beach is truly inspired!!!!
******** END OF SPOILER PLEASE CONTINUE *********
For some the ending seemed vague, misleading, confusing; I suspect the director assumed the audience would be suitably aquainted with the surge towards the unknown when deciding to shoot this scene - justifiably so when you consider most of us were brought up on Star Wars & Star Trek films where wormholes & blackholes are taken for granted.
However, with the exception of the very last scene, the second half ruins the film - from what began as a promising adventure/mystery it ends up like a soap opera and we really don't care very much for the other two characters since they don't offer us anything of interest anyway.
However, its a film to watch for all its shortfalls - and there's always the fast forward button if it gets too abstract.
***/*****
A sci-fi film from New Zealand, a country not renowned for such things but nevertheless, Quiet Earth soon addresses all that.
Zac, a scientist, or astronomer, wakes up one morning to find himself very much on his todd. The neighbourhood, the town, the country and probably the world is all his.
After the initial rush of being able to do whatever he wants he begins to realise that materialism counts for nought without some form of human interaction. By the time we reach the middle of the film Zac is on the way to being 4 beers short of a six-pack!
So far so good. The film intrigues us, fascinates us, and makes us wonder what it would be like if we were in Zac's shoes. However, the second reel is somewhat of a disappointment.
Zac finally meets two other adults - a man & woman, and all three try to comprehend what has happened to the world, but also how the two men try to win the affections of the woman.
For about 40 minutes not a lot happens apart from lots of psycho babble, male posturing & bickering. Only at the very end does it really "hit" you, especially after Zac decides to blow up his research lab to see if it will cure Earth's problem.
******* SPOILER - MISS THE NEXT SECTION *********
The explosion is timed perfectly with a massive surge of solar energy from the Sun, which may have triggered the initial problem right at the beginning of the film when Zac and his scientists did some experimental work of their own against the Sun.
The explosion coupled with the Solar Surge seems to have created a wormhole - which is a cosmological possibility in reality - that sucks Zac through a space/time event horizon and dumps him on what seems to be another habitable planet on a differnt solar system -
the scene on the beach is truly inspired!!!!
******** END OF SPOILER PLEASE CONTINUE *********
For some the ending seemed vague, misleading, confusing; I suspect the director assumed the audience would be suitably aquainted with the surge towards the unknown when deciding to shoot this scene - justifiably so when you consider most of us were brought up on Star Wars & Star Trek films where wormholes & blackholes are taken for granted.
However, with the exception of the very last scene, the second half ruins the film - from what began as a promising adventure/mystery it ends up like a soap opera and we really don't care very much for the other two characters since they don't offer us anything of interest anyway.
However, its a film to watch for all its shortfalls - and there's always the fast forward button if it gets too abstract.
***/*****