Sol Invictus (2021) User Reviews

Better Than Some

[junk-monkey · 4/10 · 20 October 2013]

This is not the greatest SF film of all time but for a near-zero budget it doesn't do that badly.

It has plot holes - why, for instance right at the end of the film, would our hero lead the predators away from his friends in an act of noble self-sacrifice when all they had to do was move a few steps nearer the huge light source right in front of them? The predators were scared of the light and were easily kept at bay by the light from a burning branch. Surely the portal with its brazzillion candle power lighting display was a perfectly safe place to be.

The acting is variable but I seen far worse. The guys did a fair job delivering a script that could have done with a good tightening up - there's far too much "What are we going to do now?", "I don't know!", "Have YOU got any ideas?" type dialogue. Someone should have gone through and been ruthless with the script, combined and reduced incidents, and then trimmed it again harder and tighter in the editing.

But I watched the film the end - which is more than I can say for many recent, far bigger-budgeted Hollywood SF films. Not a bad first directorial showing.

Read Robert Heinlein's "Tunnel in the Sky" for a better story

[wesomniman1 · 1 September 2014]

This is a movie about a group of several teenage boys who get instantly transported to an alien planet to play some sort of Survival Game. But something goes wrong and most of the boys don't make it to the planet, so toe handful that did get through, though from different teams, are forced to work together to survive and figure out a way to get back to earth.

The acting is terrible, the plot is all over the place, and the dialog is annoying to the ears. This is supposed to be a film about teamwork so that the members of the team can survive, but sometimes they kick a kid out of the group because he is humanly flawed, even though in a situation like this, they need every man they have to strengthen their chances of survival.

I think this is a really, really bad rip off of Robert Heinlein's "Tunnel in the Sky". Now there would be a movie I would pay to see.

I can't think of a worse movie

[Joe-411-128981 · 1/10 · 30 June 2012]

I registered with IMDb just so that I could write this review. I was that motivated by the awfulness of this movie. I defy you to name a worse movie. If this movie was any worse, it would actually be better, by virtue of being remarkably something. Normally, I would simply stop watching a bad movie, but I was morbidly curious as to whether the ending could be as terrible as the beginning, so I fast forwarded there. Indeed, they managed to cook up an ending as bad as the beginning. This movie has it all- bad acting, bad costumes, bad effects, an incoherent plot. At the same time, it has none of he awful charm of an Ed Wood flick.

Really Bad

[Jaseenit · 1/10 · 8 March 2014]

The acting is not so good and there is a high degree of inconsistency and flip flopping in the characters and story. Real people and situations are not that inconsistent and so all these characters seem really fake. Also hard to relate to is how almost all these characters have not an ounce of sympathy. Ira drops dead with no response at all from anyone as if it had not even happened, off they march to "win fame and glory" in a contest without a comment on the death. Then we hear about how there is only one team to compete with not 11; all the rest are dead ha ha ha they laugh about how it will be easier to win now. These are some of the most (unbelievably) unsympathetic characters I have seen depicted. Its not one group lacking compassion for another, something real humans do often enough. Its everyone lacking compassion for everyone most of the time. It kept me from ever developing a care as to what happened to them. In fact I just was hoping most of them would be killed off soon so I did not have to experience their foul presence anymore.

This movie interests me in just one regard which is the frightening prospect that real people in the real world could actually relate to these jerks without despising them. I did not think it was made consistently clear that the audience is expected to despise them. If that was intended I did not get the message. So I wonder did the marketing research figure there are real people out there who might draw inspiration from some of these psychopaths? That prospect scares me more than any scene in this lousy movie did.

Lord of the Flies (1963) shows human being kids forming clans and acting like human kids would without adult authority controlling them anymore. It is believable and almost completely unlike this movie in that regard and others.

Flip flops and inconsistencies. Just a few examples:

1) Help, threat, help, threat: Threats, scheming against each other, not a care what happens to anyone else, then next scene rushing to help one another, then threats again constantly back and forth. For me this flip flopping was NOT done in such a way that it conveyed something meaningful and was not macho kidding around. The threats and scheming were depicted very seriously such that efforts to help each other then seemed a sudden flip flop and unnatural. I think the movie 'Into the White' did this threat/help thing well as a progression. SOL did not.

2) Teams win, individuals win: One moment it is all about the teams competing to win as a team, and the next moment it is all about how only one person wins and joins Hyperion. For instance Adrian (himself) won last year before being disqualified, no mention of a team. Makes no sense and so harder to have any understanding of their motivations.

3) Trying to survive, trying to win: They decide to pool telescope parts so they can "Go home" then a moment later it is back to trying to use it to win, then no, wait, surviving and going home is what its about, no wait, winning again. Real people do not have such random shifts of major motivations and (if it was supposed to) this aspect did not work at all as some sort of complexity of situation/characters. It just seemed unnatural and not believable.

4) Tyl the Insecure, Tyl the leader: Tyl flip flops between forceful and spewing leadership jargon from inspirational posters to then doubt himself almost completely. Often you can't guess whether he will be Jeckyl or Hyde in the very next line of dialog. You can say cerebrally, that a person can have conflicting states like this, but as depicted it did not come across to me as any sort of believable character complexity.

5) Exclusive three name is not exclusive: Its made clear that having a "three name" is an academy status thing. KIT laughs at a guy like he is lowlife scum for lacking something so important. Then it turns out to be derived from one's three initials. So everyone has one, academy member or not. Nothing special and so no real kid would care about it so much. How to grasp a world in which the commonplace is something special?

Really bad movie

[vincentbabo · 1/10 · 9 August 2013]

From the beginning, people act like they know what they're doing but we really have no idea what the movie is about.

Eventually, we get the plot, more or less. The idea is this is some kind of competition on a deserted planet. This is a sci-fi movie, and the whole movie is filmed at the beach. I got tricked by the label sci-fi and the idea of a foreign planet, but really this is just a bunch of guys at the beach.

The movie is bad. I think normally that makes me puke would get a 1. It's not at that level, but it still gets the worst score for the following reason: - Not a single interesting character. I can't distinguish their personality and I don't even now any of their names. - Not a single smile for 99% of the movie. The characters try to act serious the whole time, and smile only to make smart ass comments. - This one ought to convince you: THERE'S NO SINGLE GIRL.

HORRIBLE, stay away & don't wast your time!!

[esehavi-769-696246 · 1/10 · 2 August 2013]

jbviewer review is suspect because of being a member for 7 yrs & THIS is the movie that was inspiration to write the only review after so many years?!? HORRIBLE acting realized in the first 3 minute, then the characters start spewing jargon about academies, & being captain of some team to get a coin to join some higher order all of which is never explained. The reason for the mistrust is because of the tournament & they've been stranded a an unknown planet & there is not way to get back thru the slip gate.

Immediately you realize everyone is missing members from their teams except for one & the race is on to win the tournament at all costs. No trusts each other in part because they teach @ these academies do whatever it takes to win, even if they have to kill the other team members or teams. SO despite the fact the others are likely dead, all the equipment/ supplies didn't make it thru & slip gate isn't working stranding them light years away on an unknown planet to the team members everyone is worried only about winning instead of survival.

The dialog through out the film is delivered w/o any convincing emotion by anyone. I kept waiting for KIT to die because of him being so ANNOYING & HAL couldn't have died sooner to keep him from playing his stupid ocarina...this whole thing is just plain horrible.

A bit obvious and naive but OK

[andersenjon · 5/10 · 25 June 2021]

The bots and other reviewers giving it a 1 as is usual these days. Its not one for the ages but the Lord of the Flies overtones are OK in an alternate planet (aka North Carolina).

my eyes and ears bleed

[vgerdj-305-718886 · 1/10 · 7 October 2021]

Another reviewer said 'It is a cheaply made galactic version of "Lord of the Flies." ,' exactly what I thought half-way through. The story line was pathetic: the Hunger Games meets Stargate. As George Carlin said "just think of how stupid the average person is and then realize that half the population is stupider than that." Who gave this more than 1 star? Bad acting bad direction worse script, my eyes and ears bleed. I can't get past the painful delivery.

This is film making in the trenches!

[vanderlin-768-420127 · 9/10 · 18 August 2013]

You all got it wrong, this about trust, friendship and losing and finding friends. Friends you would die for. It takes a great deal of thought to get to this point, cost is not a consideration to this fact. I believe they have accomplished this well, Tyl & Eli did very well in my book. They show the compassion to help other players in life. Just as people today only think about themselves. The point of sharing and giving to others or even just compassion in relationships. In a time in the future that is so much like the world today. it is a little rough.I have imagination to fill in the blanks. Hey had to register for this cuz some want all the glitz and glamor. Sol got it done with less than Hollywood and i believe they did well!

I liked the movie Sol.

[jbviewer · 7/10 · 21 February 2013]

I wasn't sure what to expect when I watched this movie but I was drawn into the plot from the first minute. The story revolves around teams of young people who are playing an galactic game called Sol. Teams of youths are transported to planets throughout the galaxy without knowing which planet they will land on and the winner is the first person to find our sun (Sol) in the night sky. Something goes wrong from the start and therein lies the story.

I'm not sure why the other reviewer found this movie to be so bad. It's a suspenseful story, with shades of The Lord of the Flies and Robinson Crusoe about it. It's not overflowing with exciting special effects and has a bit of a low budget feel to it, but the interplay of the characters is interesting and overall, I found the movie to be a thought-provoking and satisfying experience.

No girls in the movie, just a kid talking to anothers mom

[transmdwick · 10/10 · 17 June 2020]

I saw this long long ago, I would love a DVD of this movie. Its raw and unexpected, can you imagine yourself on a planet trying to figure out how to get home before you get killed. Not knowing whats next, running out of supplies and time, on a hostel planet unexplored. I wish I could share this movie!

I can't believe other people hate this movie!

[CornanTheIowan · 7/10 · 11 March 2014]

I was utterly surprised at how poorly this movie was reviewed by some people.

Bottom line, this movie had me in its grips from almost the beginning.

While perhaps there were a few forced moments in the plot, I really didn't know what was going to happen, and yes, I cared about the characters.

I watched this with my 9-year-old son and we both like it.

For me there was an appropriate amount of mystery, and I even liked the spareness of the setting, the dialog and the plot.

This movie is not about space. It's about PEOPLE.

That Lucky Old Sol!

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 2 November 2014]

I had not heard of this movie. It is a cheaply made galactic version of "Lord of the Flies." That said, it stands reasonable well on its own. A group of boys find themselves on a planet during a competition among some space cadets. They are somehow dropped into a milieu that is not what they expected. One group is connected and the rest are singles who must prove themselves to the rest. There is a dangerous creature or creatures on the planet, but the real threat is within the group. They are caught between their competitive beings and their wish to escape their prison. The thing reeks of distrust and immaturity (which means that it does hit the mark pretty well). They are incredibly dangerous individuals and babies at the same time. They are selfish and simple, but they are also filed with angst and complexities. My biggest criticism is that we are never able to figure out what the hell they are doing there and what they are trying to accomplish when it comes to getting home. A clear picture of that would have taken it beyond an encounter among a diverse group of flawed figures. Also, I would have liked to know what life on Earth was like at this time.