Doomsday Prophecy

Surprisingly interesting. Subject is very actual and overused in many movies but this one brings a different twist to the "end-of-the-world" franchise.

This is not like the Hollywood product-placement films, it actually has content, action, some real pieces of spirituality inserted here and there discreetly, otherwise the fanatics would raise their bible! A great movie. To the opposite of some reviewers, I'm not into the already chewed up flicks from Hollywood and such so my review is not based on how much sex, drugs, loud music, barely hidden publicity, and how many corporates names are inserted in the movie, it's about the IMAGINATION (unknown to the Hollywood crowd!) Don't be biased by the Hollywood lover, this is a very good movie and deserves more than it has.

Decently written, very entertaining disaster movie that overall is very different to all the other disaster flicks that I have watched. Somewhat shoddy animation and special effects at times, the ending is somewhat cheesy and unbelievable, but still enjoyable. The acting is pretty good - especially on Jewel Staite's (Brooke) part - but generally nothing much to speak of. Didn't see the point in the villain. Bonus points for being the first disaster movie that I have seen with zero romance in it whatsoever. Overall, a very good, entertaining disaster movie that I recommend watching.

...with neither a whimper nor a bang but another absurdly bad movie. Actually it starts reasonably well and has some effective special effects. But it spirals downward pretty quickly, yet another repeat of the now standard Armageddon formula that has been done endless times...world faces threat (alien invasion... epidemic...giant meteor...alien invaders...killer bees...take your choice. In this case it's earthquakes.) Young guy, helped by sexy girl friend, fights his bosses to save the world...and they all live happily ever after, at least until the next sci-fi turkey. This is a Canadian movie but the good guys are all Americans. Rather than some genuine high-tech suspense, we get clichéd car chases and gun fights like some two bit white hat vs. black hat pot-boiler. (Hey guys... this is the end of the world we're talking about here. Use some imagination!!!) The Canadian producers either didn't know or decided to ignore the fact that American lawmen and military personnel cannot operate in Canada with impunity as they do here. Not quite bad enough to be good. But still pretty awful.

This movie was not suspenseful or particularly interesting. The CGI was typically unnatural and very fake looking, there were a lot of failures to keep consistent with some of the supposedly scientific phenomenon, and it was a rather see-through plot with no surprises. The only saving grace about this movie was the actors were actually good. I think a lot more could have been done with this movie if it had had a better budget. It was almost like watching one of those semi-interesting science movies they show you in high school. In fact, I'm pretty sure most of those high school science movies had better graphics. Worth watching once if you are bored and have alcohol. Not something you'd turn off half way through out of sheer boredom, but not something I would watch again and/or recommend to others.

I say this as somebody who dislikes a vast majority of SyFy's movies. Doomsday Prophecy actually did seem interesting in its idea, but I also approached it in trepidation in fear that it would be another Titanic II, Quantum Apocalypse, Alien vs. Hunter, Almighty Thor or 2010: Moby Dick. In my opinion though, although it is far from perfect or even brilliant, Doomsday Prophecy is one of their more tolerable efforts.

There is some cheesy dialogue, some of the supporting characters could have been better developed and some of the effects like with the ground cracking are rather cheap. The story is also uneven for me. The film does start off promisingly and for a while unlike some SyFy movies actually feels as though there is a story and an original one at that plus it is paced reasonably, but it does meander with a silly subplot involving some shady characters and few scenes that feel like filler rather than serving purpose to the story and an ending that feels rather rushed and abrupt.

On the other hand, the scenery is quite good and the editing and photography are an improvement over most SyFy efforts, not looking as slipshod as something like Titanic II, Mega Piranha or Dinocroc vs Supergator. The music is adequate even if nothing stands out as such and the sound is more authentic than some of the bizarre or misplaced sound effects I've heard in past SyFy movies. While there are some underdeveloped support characters, the leads are somewhat likable especially the protagonist. The cameos are decent and AJ Buckley is solid, but the best thing about Doomsday Prophecy is easily Jewel Staite, she looks very natural and gives her character a lot of charm and wide-eyed innocence.

All in all, not bad, not good, just a tolerable enough if not exceptional in any shape or form to spend a couple of hours or so with. 5/10 Bethany Cox