BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Ceticultsot Beautiful, moving film.

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

funfun-81092 I like how this movie takes the natural fears inherent in space travel and takes it to an extreme that I found both terrifying and riveting. I was reminded somewhat of Dark Star, although this is tonally different. Well matched with a Guinness and bowl of microwave popcorn. I suggest you watch it on amazon prime instant, if you have it.

Semicharm Three crew members are on a mission from a future Mars colony to a failed Earth, and along the way they start acting strange. After a close call with an asteroid, they discover something unusual in the cargo hold.Overall, Earthrise is a huge disappointment. Even judging it by its low-budget indie peers, nothing in the film rates above a 5/10. The sets, lighting, cinematography serve their purpose, but noting notable. The only highlights are that the actors' performances occasionally raise above the material they're given. Also the score sometimes hits the right emotional note to heighten the tension, but other times misses it entirely. What most defines Earthrise is editing and plot. Non-linear storytelling is an artform rarely done well. In the hands of a master, it adds an extra dimension to the film, but generally it's just a tacky veneer to distract from an otherwise thin plot--and the plot of Earthrise is as hollow as a cracked bell.One thing that becomes clear early on is that some of the events are put together out of order. For instance: between scene cuts, Marshall suddenly has a band-aid on his forehead without explanation. The actual scene where the accident occurs comes later. Also throughout the film are recorded interviews with the three crew members prior to their mission, and others who completed it. Though the interviews provide an interesting contrast between what the crew believe themselves to be and who they really are, the latter serves better as a Three Stooges revival. They're lucky that their ship is on autopilot, because it would be a smoking crater if they had to land it.The core elements of a thriller are tension and payoff--Earthrise almost never does. The opening summary might sound like an interesting movie, if a bit cliché. However, Earthrise manages to take anything noteworthy and blows it out an airlock.**If you read everything up till now and still have a vague twinge of curiosity, you can stop reading...and maybe smack yourself with a frying pan till the feeling subsides. If I've otherwise managed to dissuade you from watching this slow-burning train wreck, you'll soon thank me.** The part about Mars and Earth is merely pretense; none of that really affects the plot. Much of what we learn about the crew through the interviews is largely tossed to the cold vacuum of space as well--they all equally go nuts by the end. They start acting strange and having hallucinations, but never investigate why. A collision with an asteroid would usually be a disaster, but the trio make it through with merely a scratch. Nothing a band-aid can't fix. (Not even Johnson & Johnson could save this plot.) The broken crate they find in the cargo hold looks more like an animal cage, but all that's left inside are Mars rocks. What was really in it? No idea, they never follow up on that one either. In fact, their only concern is not reporting *anything* back to Mars out of fear of the mission being called off. In the real world, they'd be judged more by how they deal with the situation than the crisis itself.Why did Mars pick these three stooges for this mission? I honestly don't care. *Nothing* really happens.

alfredfreitas-113-134780 I watched the entire movie hoping that at the end the entire movie would make some kind of sense. Boy was I disappointed.It almost seemed as if the events in the film were random, meaningless, pointless and contrived. Unexplained "visions", with no apparent connection to the plot (one might ask "what plot"), a box of reddish rocks (presumably from Mars) causing hallucinations on the ship (and why are rocks being taken from Mars to Earth and why don't they cause hallucinations on Mars?).The editing was frantic at best and, to me, uninteresting and dull at worst. Editing does not replace good story telling (one might ask "what story telling?)I did read all the other reviews before I wrote this review and wondered if I had watched a different movie. This film was in no way a groundbreaking innovation nor a better version of "what it's like to be bored to death on a long space flight". I simply don't get how the reviewers came to their high praises of this pointless work.The actors, for the most part, did their best with the material but it appears the director totally let them down. They are the only reason I didn't give this film a lower rating.The sets also left a lot to be desired. There seemed to be an awful lot of wasted space on the space ship without any apparent reason. The lack of any, and mean any, modern technology on a space ship defies imagination. We are asked to suspend disbelief while engaging a work of art but we should get at least a little help from the artist.Overall, this film is just not worth the time I took out of my life to watch it.

FreqEteQ NZ When I saw the opening shot to Earthrise one thing sprung to mind, that the positive reviews here applauding the beautiful cinematography and directing in this movie were probably all written by people associated with the production of the film, so what else did these people say about the movie that also wasn't true? Turns out quite a lot.The entire movie is set on a spaceship with a crew of three people, but unfortunately the sets are as unbelievable as the acting is. The acting isn't the worst I've seen, but for a movie with only three characters to pull us in it just wasn't good enough to make me believe in those characters.The sets are very basic looking, bland and empty, if I didn't know it was set on a spaceship I never would have guessed it by just looking at the sets. And every room has a Jackson Pollock type painting on at least one wall because I guess it's the future and that's how cargo spaceships are decorated? No one has photos of friends or family on the wall, the touch screens and TV's that we see everywhere today seem to have totally disappeared in the future only to be replaced by Jackson Pollock paintings. The directing and camera-work is what really ruined this movie for me. The editing leaves you scratching your head in places, it gives the impression that someone with ADD was in charge of it. There are 36 camera cuts in one minute in a scene where 3 people are sitting around a dinner table having a mundane boring conversation, that's the type of fast paced editing reserved for action and fight scenes, not slow conversations over breakfast. Lots of little errors as well, the camera is following a character walking down a corridor with a door on their left, then the camera turns around to look at them from the front but the door stays on the same side of the shot, obviously because the corridor set only has one end so both shots have to be taken from the same end. Not a huge deal, but for people who notice things like that there are quite a few of them in this movie, maybe you could do a drinking game with them? The story and special effects are both adequate, though there are only 3 or 4 VERY short effects shots in the entire movie and none of them are standout, and by short I mean 2-3 seconds if that. The story is nothing new and holds few surprises, but it turned out not being the insult to my intelligence that I thought it was going to be.Not the worst movie I've ever seen, pretty close though, a real amateurish effort especially with the set design, directing, editing and cinematography. I would not recommend this movie and instead would suggest to anyone thinking of watching it to instead watch Sunshine, Pandorum or Cargo which are all way better constructed thrillers set in space.2/10 - note to filmmakers - next time you make a science fiction movie on a budget why not borrow a couple of iPads and stick them inside futuristic looking cases that you've painted silver and have the characters use them a couple of times during the movie? Give us the impression that they're in the future using technology and not just on a ship full of empty rooms and Jackson Pollock paintings.