"Apocalypse Rising" is a mash-up of every sci-fi, barbarian lore, future funk house, b-movie, kitchen sink story imagined between the 70's and now. Obviously though only the moments considered by genre fans to be the epic ones. Wolk clearly lives the life of mixed sci-fi storytelling. Every scene and every word muttered is meant to invoke the spirit of past b-movie , cult classic, drive in movie moments we all fawn over. But you know the saying "If everyone is Han Solo then no one is Han Solo".
The scenes seem stripped of substance , and feel chopped up. There is no real dialog that allows for a natural flow from moment to moment. Each sequence is trying to be as big and as epic a moment as the last, but unfortunately they seem absurdly strung together and the intent gets overpowered by the ridiculous. Not that there isn't some cool, entertaining stuff in this film, "Apocalypse Rising" just demands that you not only suspend disbelief but dive fully into insanity.
The CGI is quality and overall the special effects work in this crazy train ride through time, space, religion, aex, and the zombie apocalypse. I know right!? - all things to make you wanna check it out. The low budget was utilized pretty good which gives "Apocalypse Rising" a better chance at being enjoyable. Oddly enough though, considering how important it obviously was to dance around the porn-parody concepts, I would have found it a better movie if the writer and cast would have went all in.
Overall "Apocalypse Riding" is a full "fence-strattling" situation. The film is so absurd and yet so much....! It will have you shutting down in act one, or awe struck at the screen to the end. Still scratching your head, wondering "is this just bad, or so bad it is so good". Clearly no one involved was afraid to color outside the lines.
