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Final Days of Planet Earth (2006)
R1 - America - Echo Bridge Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Jari Kovalainen (26th January 2007). |
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The Film
 Prepare for a long introduction. A space exploration is in progress and the team of astronauts visit the moon. On the way back, William Phillips (Campbell Scott - e.g. “Singles (1992)” and “The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)”) and Liz Quinlan (Daryl Hannah - e.g. “Blade Runner (1982)”, “Wall Street (1987)”, and “Kill Bill: Vol. 1-2 (2003-2004)”) are resting after the successful mission. Phillips wakes up at some point, with all the other members having disappeared. Something is badly wrong. Back on earth, homeless Korean war veteran Oliver (Beau Starr - e.g. “Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)” and “Halloween 5 (1989)”) is visiting the local park, only to hear some strange voices from the underground, which has scared all the birds away. In the heart of the city, archaeologist Lloyd Walker (Gil Bellows - e.g. “The Shawshank Redemption (1994)” and “The Weather Man (2005)”) is in the middle of studying the construction site, when a whole building collapses near it. For some reason, city officials - mainly Korshaft (Serge Houde), are very eager to shut the site down and Walker finds himself off limits in his own dig site. Walker soon meets the ex-astronaut Liz Quinlan, now the major´s assistant and she seems to be willing to help him. The reporter Jake Roth (John Cassini - e.g. “Se7en (1995)” and “Get Carter (2000)”) is contacting Walker, since he´s sure that something very fishy is going on by the city officials. There´s an old, abandoned, cave that leads underground beneath the dig site, where some strange fungus grows. Walker visits the place, also finding some explosive gas. Is this what the city hall is trying to cover up? Elsewhere in the suburbs, insects exterminator Marianne (Suleka Mathew - as Sue Mathew, e.g. “Battlestar Galactica (2003)”-TV-series) is doing her daily job, killing bugs to finance her studies. Car salesman Spence (Patrick Gilmore) is fired and goes to look for a new job. Siblings from Serbia; Bella (Tina Milo Milivojevic - as Tina Milo) and Nick (Tygh Runyan - e.g. “Snakes on a Plane (2006)”) are trying to get by after the mysterious disappearance of Bella´s husband. All these people will come together - for various reasons, when they´re advised to contact to the special room at the City Hall. It´s time to find out, what is in “Room 86”… “Final Days of Planet Earth (2006)” from director Robert Lieberman is a 2-part mini-series produced for the “Hallmark Channel” and it´s a hybrid of the various sci-fi and horror films such as “The Quatermass Xperiment (1955)”, “They Live (1988)”, “Species (1995)”, and “V (1984-1985)” TV-series. The main plot is focused on the alien conspiracy to invade the earth, which has always been a fruitful subject for the filmmakers; a timeless story that has been told in countless ways over the years. It´s also a subject that has gone wrong many times and this TV-production doesn´t bring anything new to the story. “Final Days of Planet Earth” is not a totally bad effort and certainly not the worst production surrounding the subject, but the over 3 hour running time will ultimately wear you down. This happens already during the first hour, which is quite frankly rather boring. The series is taking its time to introduce all the numerous characters and setting up the story to the point when they all meet and after that the story basically goes in full swing. Or it should at least. At that point I was already quite disappointed and upcoming scenes didn´t have the needed punch to fix up the rest of series. There was no real tension either. I also had some issues with the lead “hero”, played by Gil Bellows. His character Walker is not very likeable, which is partly intentional (in one scene he tells that “I´m not too fond of people”), but will probably alienate (no pun intended) many viewers. With this type of story, you´ll need some credibility for the lead actor and at least some emotions, but there is very little of that in the film. Bellows (or his character) can´t connect with the audience. Daryl Hannah suits her role quite well with her “Amazon-like” appearance, but I had a feeling that her heart isn´t fully in the series (can´t blame her). Generally you could say that the actors are all decent, but none of them really shines and don´t expect too much from the effects-front either (CGI-effects are rather weak). “Final Days of Planet Earth” is ultimately like a long highway; you should see many landmarks and interesting places along the way, but which eventually doesn´t offer much, not even some bumps on the road. You could´ve just taken the plain.
Video
The series is presented in Anamorphic 1.78:1 and is a decent effort. Colours could be somewhat stronger to my eyes and there´s some softness (along with some murkiness/noisiness), but nothing is significantly wrong. “Dual layer” disc is coded “R1”, and the film is divided in 2 parts; “Part 1” runs 84:56 minutes (NTSC) and “Part 2” runs 86:59 minutes (NTSC). There are 30 chapters altogether.
Audio
The disc includes English Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 surround-tracks. There are no subtitles, but English Closed Captions are included. 5.1-track is a suited companion to the transfer - fairly good, but nothing that special. Surround activity or directional cues are not very aggressive, but you´ve some basic ingredients. Dialogue is a bit low, though. With Pro Logic, 2.0-track works as well as 5.1 and it´s actually the punchier track of the two when I sampled it. Note, that back cover includes the “DTS”-logo, but that´s not included.
Extras
2 bonus trailers are included before the “Main menu” (they can be skipped); “The Black Hole (TV/2006)” and “10.5: Apocalypse (2006)”. “Are We Alone? - Interview with the Cast & Crew” -featurette runs 12:02 minutes. The cast & crew are giving their own (variable) answer to the question about the possible alien life forms in outer space. This is mildly interesting, but since they´ve interviewed almost all major players from the production, why not talk about that instead. The featurette includes actors Daryl Hannah, Campbell Scott, Gil Bellows, Suleka Mathew, Serge Houde, Patrick Gilmore, Tygh Runyan, Tina Milo Milivojevic and Beau Starr; director Robert Lieberman, visual effects supervisor Lee Wilson, producer Michael O'Connor, and cinematographer Thomas Burstyn.
Overall
Very average TV-production about the aliens from outer space, that tends to be more sleepy than full of tension and action. Decent actors and partly entertaining story are saving this from being a complete disaster, though - and hardcore sci-fi fans might find it at least interesting. DVD-presentation is a good, yet standard effort. For more info, please visit the homepage of Echo Bridge Home Entertainment.
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