AE: APOCALYPSE EARTH is another dud from The Asylum, released and titled to cash in on the Will Smith flick AFTER EARTH. Other than the alien planet setting, this has nothing to do with the Hollywood flick. Instead it turns out to be a dull and derivative version of PREDATOR, as a bunch of characters find themselves heading through a hostile alien jungle pursued by a murderous extraterrestrial. With a no-name cast and appalling special effects, this is a barrel-scraping escapade, and even the introduction of some green-skinned AVATAR people doesn't help much.

Watched this with no expectations or preconceptions and it could have worked. There were bits that missed and it might be those bits were cut but it didn't improve the film. Some of the acting was iffy, There'd be a quite bit where the characters were talking then they'd hit a line that was a bit more intense and it gets delivered like it's a battle command under fire.I understand people think the ship only held 20 odd people, but it crashes and a good likelihood that hundreds could have died. The miracle is that anyone survived and that they weren't all mangled. Why couldn't that have had liferafts trigger before the crash that would smooth that wrinkle.Several times a chameleon is killed and yet no-one tried to investigate the creature ( is the invisibility a natural power or a suit ? ) Military would want to know their enemy. Plus the aliens have plasma weapons yet no-one tried to grab one for the first half the film.3 people rush off frame, enter next frame the female version of Mr Benn has 'appeared' with them with no explanation.The red jump suited people, All with their jumpsuits ripped off just below the groin. Clothes split at knees first and 2 years would either have the suits battered or all ripped. Poor wardrobe. Plus they might as well have made the suits red-shirts.why go from cover to rush out to the waters edge while the craft is flying overhead. Ditch the orange jumpsuits and crawl in 2's out into the open. What was the trained military bloke thinking? He smears himself with mud which fades and returns between takes.The cameo girls face marking fade and return, at night in the spacecraft she pretty much has a green face with brow markings.Some weirdness with the aborigines results in them teaming up and providing a trove of 'ancestor' weapons. So you have aborigines skilled with primitive weapons, military skilled with firearms so how do they divvy up the weapons, yep you guess it the natives gets the firearms and energy weapons and the military carry on with their bent sticks and bent stick arrows.Bent sticks with string makes a bow.. Yes it does if your 9 playing robin hood but come on? lashing a bundle of bamboo together would give a better effect as it would actually take some effort to bend. Bent sticks for arrows with no fletchings, nocks or head would do nothing. Though please watch you'll see the bent stick come off the string and be shuffled back by the actor, An arrowhead appears on the arrow over the hand but wide shot shows the bent stick off behind. The Black guys bow becomes a real kiddy bow near the end neat planed edges.A Bamboo spear would be easier to make and more effective so why did film makers go for crappy bows and arrows.The Boat. Their running towards the river then say 'there it is' and low there is a boat. Boat who knew there was a boat ? ( Cut scene maybe? ) Boats a black rubber boat covered in grass. Couldn't they have uses a wooden canoe and covered it or made a log raft effect. It looked so fake. Scroll on a bit and you see them paddling the next scene the 'Mr Benn' woman sailing over the waterfall on her own. ( her teleport wasn't working right ) pan back to the others and there all in the water. What happened to the boat.The Dragon thing. Killed by a flare in the mouth and lightly slashing it's belly with a knife. It dies instantly, no trashing around for hours as disemboweling isn't instantly fatal. Plus a small combat knife is unlikely to go through the hide on a leaf slide attack.what was the final calculations 25000 years? Yet the rock work was still crisp. Mountains have eroded in that timeframe before? Final quirk, Invade, Terraform then have minimum population living there to study the indigenous lifeforms. Why? Writers and props guys should have looked at the pictures in kiddy books. The armies through the ages would have given the natives better weapon and perhaps if they'd read on of the old declassified military training manuals they'd have come up with better survival gear. It's like they had an interesting idea but thought they knew enough to do it on their own without research. Fewer factual problems might have given the actors a better chance to play their parts properly.

That is saying very little however as After Earth was so poorly done, the worst movie personally seen so far this year with one of the worst ever child performances. As bad as it is though it is a masterpiece compared to the irredeemable dreck that is AE: Apocalypse Earth, one of those Asylum mock-busters that happens to "taking inspiration from" After Earth. AE: Apocalypse Earth is not quite down there with The Asylum's worst movies but it's in the lower end. If there is one glint of a redeeming quality it's some competent photography at the end. Visually, it is not good at all and that it's low-budget comes through loud and clear. The scenery is very dully rendered and lit, never once drawing us into the setting, while the special effects look as they were made last minute and that the makers ran out of time to properly finish them and the photography and editing in general are an eyesore. The music is generic and forgettable, sometimes derivative also of the score for After Earth(the least bad thing about that film), while the sound effects and quality are murky. The dialogue is often total gibberish, somebody really needs to check that what they're writing makes any kind of sense, and is cheesy and stilted as well. Seeing as this is The Asylum we're talking about, the lack of originality(not just After Earth, Predators and Avatar as well) is something you eventually have to accustom to- no matter how frustrating it is- but the story still fails to be exciting, emotionally investing or remotely interesting for that matter. Instead it is as plodding as the story for After Earth, has the same nonsense and questionable science you expect for the Asylum and any dramatic scenes are mawkish and forced. The characters are not memorable or likable in the slightest, a few are even annoying, the fact that levels of characterisation itself are next to non-existent is a large part of the problem. The direction is flat and characterless, and the acting is so bad from everybody involved it's not worth commenting on, ranging from bored-sounding to irritating. In conclusion, horrible from start to finish. 1/10 Bethany Cox

OK we all know Asylum doesn't stand for quality. The acting is poor (as to be expected) But the Story for once is not that bad. It all sticks together and scientifically it all adds up.I rate it a 6/10 why? because i've seen way worse movies then this, and If I am going to give Moby Dick 2000 or something a 2 then this movie deserves a 6. It is that much better then most Asylum movies. CGI can be better but then again i've seen them way worse in other asylum movies. Acting is bad, but then again, i've seen worse acting The story on the other hand sticks, and that's why i am giving 6/10 acting = 1 out of 3 CGI = 2 out of 3 Story = 3 out of 4 together that makes 6 ;)