One of the best films i have seen

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

There is not much excitement in the film. The story is pretty generic, probably due to the poor acting of all characters which gives a dull viewing experience. Except for some pretty nice sci-fi effects, nothing stands out in this movie to make it memorable.

I never watch series, and it never came to my mind that this was supposed to be a pilot film. The final open end, which I rather found funny and I wasn't disappointed at all, suggested that the story had a lot of potential, and I looked for a (planned) sequel. There is none, no series either.I was entertained without a bore, though the characters were a bit too caricatured, but there wasn't too much unnecessary small talk (which I really hate in series and the reason why I don't waste my time watching them) just to fill the time between a too scarce story events.There isn't much of a story, and you almost feel in a kind of survival 3D game with no monsters. Except there isn't much action either. Nevertheless, I was surprised it took me 40th minutes to check my watch, when it felt just like 20 min. and the rest of the movie ended up quite fast.As it stands, its a good B movie, small budget, cheap effects, but professionally well directed with good rhythm.

A building that acts as a portal to alternative Earths? So far so good. That's the kind of movie for me. Unfortunately, the first Earth that the trio (plus Wu) get to visit is a sort of cliché B-movie version of "Mad Max 2" – and that's definitely one of my more peevy cinematic pet-peeves. Sure, the location looks kinda nifty, but the characters and the plot revolving around that Earth are stereotypical and you know straight off the bat it's going to be boring. Thug gang kidnaps the innocents and they have to free themselves to reach the portal on time: who the hell didn't see that coming? A plot-line from 10,000 movies and TV shows.Things get better when they visit a more advanced Earth than our own. For some reason, the foursome split up into two groups, which is asinine. Not quite as dumb as horny dumb teens splitting up in a haunted mansion, but still quite daft. It's not as if they were tourists strolling through Manhattan or Paris, sightseeing.The finale became quite interesting, what with that elevator leading to who-knows-where-and-whom, and the appearance of the siblings' father. Or is he? The angry bald guy who makes gadgets hacks the building, which is a nice touch (I actually thought he was building yet another nuclear device to blow up THAT Earth as well! – which would have been extremely stupid), but his warning about Carver remains unresolved: why did he try to warn the others about him? Where did Baldy go? Whom did he meet up there? What was he told by the building's makers? Not only is all of that unresolved, but we don't even get to find out what the mysterious sphere was for. I mean, Ronan had it in his bag since the movie started, and yet it never amounts to much more than a plot-device for Wu to tell us that there is a place called Coreworld.That's the movie's basic problem: too many loose ends completely ignored and unexplained. A certain measure of mystery is perfectly acceptable – even advisable – for such movies, but too many loose ends lead to confusion and a sense that the script is underdeveloped. At the very least there should be a sequel to wrap things up, but low-budget indie movies aren't exactly known for sequeling themselves that much.Aside for the fun premise, my biggest congrats goes to whoever cast Constance Wu, because that woman makes all the female A-listers look really bad (which isn't saying much), such a refreshment in the Age of Ugly Nepotists. I said this a million times, but I'll say it again: why can't a beautiful woman like her have a career the way Aniston and Kunis have? Because one is a nepotist and the other, well, we won't go into that. Or how about that daft little floozy Johansson? She gets hyped more than Coca Cola. Hollywood insiders will know exactly what I'm talking about. The outsiders will want to pelt me with food.

I found some irritating inconsistencies during this film and put it down to poor writing, but as it turned out it was intentional all along! Such as Ronan driving the first car in the nuke world back to the building, then later on in the film he gets in to the car outside his dad's house and Polly asks if he knows "how to drive one of these things".There are a few more, and if you watch again closely they are sprinkled everywhere. A delight to watch the second time too.Clever writing, believable acting, a bit melodramatic in places and could use some general tinkering with the pacing, and characters telling their life story every 20 mins as a plot device to give the characters the info they need to move forward. Netflix, Amazon, pick this up immediately and move forward, so we can all pay to watch a series.