Stonehenge Apocalypse

STONEHENGE APOCALYPSE sees those hacks at the SyFy Channel turn their attentions to the UK with a disaster story set around the titular archaeological site. Turns out there's an ancient, alien machine buried deep beneath the stones, a machine which might well spell disaster for mankind.

What this all boils down to is the usual doomsday-disaster stuff, with lots of science types running around and panicking and military types barking gruff orders. Inevitably there are some human villains in this one who need neutralising, although the heroes are on to a good thing with HOLBY CITY actor Peter Wingfield headlining the cast as the crusading doctor.

Wingfield is a lot better than this production deserves and to be fair it's pretty bad by genre standards, and about normal for SyFy standards. The Canadian locations look nothing like Britain and the CGI effects are pretty horrendous, but you could do worse as a time filler.

I was drawn to this film, or at least my girlfriend was, upon seeing that Misha Collins was in it - she loves him in 'Supernatural' and has practically converted me into a fan too. But how would he stand up by himself, without those Winchester boys and Crowley to support him? The answer is, not that bad actually.

This is your typical low budget Sy-Fy film which uses CGI to drive a usually weak plot forward. A group of scientists unearth a skeleton and a piece of machinery near Stonehenge. They accidentally trigger a countdown to the apocalypse, potentially dooming all of mankind. Collins plays Jacob, a misunderstood scientist trying to save everything. In truth he plays it in a very Castiel tongue in cheek way (just without the wings and grace). Torri Higginson plays Kaycee who delivers in an unoffensive manner, much like the rest of the cast, there aren't many moments when the acting is cheesy - it's more a case that they do their best without over or under acting. There were blatant plot holes and gaffes galore, the CGI was shockingly bad at times and it was obviously filmed in America rather than anywhere near England. It feels more like a low budget student film rather than your usual Sy-Fy trash, which actually surprised me. I watch a lot of rubbish films and I expected this to be one of those, but in truth it was slightly classier than some of the other rubbish I watch. It's got a little bit of action, a little pace, and enough of a plot and script to keep me entertained. For this reason I'm giving it a 5 out of 10 - not offensive rubbish that I'd avoid, but likewise not a noteworthy addition to the cinematographic world.

I was expecting the same 'ol SYFY, but instead found this to be above average for that network. The acting was fine -- sometimes actually good -- and the story was acceptable. They actually paid attention to small details as well, which added to the attraction. I was actually interested in most of the characters and wanted them to live; compare this to Princess of Mars where I wondered if there actually was a story, and didn't care if the characters disappeared.

Some reviews here bashed the story, but I can only ask: did you forget this is SYFY? It's science "fiction" -- science "fact" appears on the Science Channel, History, National Geographic, etc. This is a fine SYFY story, enjoyable, and fun.

Give it a shot.

I liked this movie, OK it is absurd but somehow it managed to keep my interest alive. The scene in which the temple rises out of the earth is simply superb. The characters are believable and the acting is reasonably good. I don't expect George Lucas, Stanley Kubrick or even Wes Craven on most SyFy Saturday night movies, I wanted a movie that wasn't completely stupid (OK, not completely SERIOUSLY stupid, it was absurd & knew it, & had fun with it) and with a nice interesting pace, & this movie was surely it. Of course I wouldn't dream of spending money to see it! Overall, better than most cheapo sci-fi movies, fair to good acting (I think the lead character plays Castiel on Supernatural).

In amongst all this mess is actually quite a good story. If it had been written by Clive Cussler or Michael Crichton it could have been a very good book.

As it is though its not a good film. The acting is poor as is the way the story is told.

The first half is set in the UK but clearly filmed in the US. Special effects are just what you would expect.

The science involved is truly laughable and its clear nobody did any research whatsoever.

Even though the bad things about this film massively outweigh the good it still put a smile on my face and it made me want to watch to the end to see what happened.