I wasn't quite sure what to expect, perhaps a bit of MadMax mayhem, modernity and maybe even a plot. Sadly all were in short supply. The film starts on a promise of good things to come with a good slow pace and an urgent feeling of where am I. Halfway thru and to the end your still wondering. Its a real slog to try and get to grips with what is going on. In almost every scenario, this movie brings up many questions that never get answered. So a colony is living out in the desert? With no visible means to sustain themselves,? no water?, livestock? Although it seems rattle snake is a very popular dish or its the only dish. And when this very same village is being raped and plundered, in a nearby tent a group of little kiddies are having a tea party??? wtf??? The baddies are easily identified but you are not sure why they are the baddies. And just when you think you can join the dots, the plot over reaches in aspiration and falls to dust which is where most of the movie is based. As for the lead character Abel, my mouse pad is more animated ..i mean seriously, squinting and smoldering at everyone can only say so much.. Great cinematography and score but where this came from and where it wants to go..who knows or cares. Oh and as for the half medieval-half... what ever it is, seems it is part of the plot but again, what convolution it is.
7 Reviews
A Profoundly Stupid Movie
markways14 May 2014
Warning: Spoilers
Wow. So the apocalypse happened and yet people have hair products, nice new uniforms, lots of everything...? OK, OK, so they stumbled on a giant cache of, you know, stuff. And the special effects budget was small enough so that they might have done better not showing any aliens at all. What really sinks this movie is the writing and dialog, which is not stupid enough to be laughable or memorable. Now I understand what was lost in the whatever-it-was that ended civilization: any shred of intelligence. I guess the good news is that someone got paid to do some work; the bad is that wow, it's just such bad work. The actors are pretty enough, though, and that's something, and you get to see what the desert of Southern California looks like when the world's over (hmm... kind of a lot like it looks like already, huh, weird.) Keep this one off the resume, kids.
I'LL BE RIGHT BACK
nogodnomasters4 October 2018
Warning: Spoilers
The film opens with narration, not by Tony Todd, the best man for it. It seems the world has gone Mad Max because of an alien invasion. A girl is born who has a secret and she must be protected...and is not told the secret. Abel (Steven Luke) who is mostly mute during this film is tasked with her rescue, now that she is an adult (Jordan McFadden) and is being held by the evil General Chizum (Bates Wilder).
Most of the film is them getting away and the General and his men following.
The soundtrack was fairly lame. The General had a ridiculous glass eye. The alien appears twice in the film (once dead) and speaks a combination of Jabba and Predator looking like something out of one of the newer Star Wars...which were the earlier episodes.
There is a Native American tracker who does so by eating dirt. In one scene they say "we must follow on foot" only later to show up with a fleet of vehicles. In one scene Ellie our hero has a clean, well made up face and is told she needs a bath because she smells. In the subsequent bathing scene her face is suddenly dirty and bloody. Too low budget for a reshoot and like Ed Wood would say, "Who will notice?"
When we do discover the secret of the girl, in the closing seconds of the film, I had to just say, "Huh?" "What did I miss?"
Parental Guide: No f-bombs or sex. Brief magazine nudity. Attempted rape. Killing, torture, and blood.
Most of the film is them getting away and the General and his men following.
The soundtrack was fairly lame. The General had a ridiculous glass eye. The alien appears twice in the film (once dead) and speaks a combination of Jabba and Predator looking like something out of one of the newer Star Wars...which were the earlier episodes.
There is a Native American tracker who does so by eating dirt. In one scene they say "we must follow on foot" only later to show up with a fleet of vehicles. In one scene Ellie our hero has a clean, well made up face and is told she needs a bath because she smells. In the subsequent bathing scene her face is suddenly dirty and bloody. Too low budget for a reshoot and like Ed Wood would say, "Who will notice?"
When we do discover the secret of the girl, in the closing seconds of the film, I had to just say, "Huh?" "What did I miss?"
Parental Guide: No f-bombs or sex. Brief magazine nudity. Attempted rape. Killing, torture, and blood.
Better than the rate
dmdb30 April 2015
I only write reviews of movies with low rating, which actually are not that bad. Give them a chance!
I really enjoyed watching this film and I don't understand why it has such low rating. I love post-apocalyptic films, and this one is really good.
It is not perfect, there are some bad things, but not THAT bad. Story is nothing special, chase & run. Post-apocalyptic world is not really shown, only desert. No buildings, infrastructure and transport. Low budget, I understand, but that is not the excuse. Aliens are designed really bad and this is the only thing I didn't like in the film. Like a child drawing adapted for screen. Disappointing.
However, it is watchable and I wanted to know what next will happen. Acting is good, their conversation, photography, sound design. The story is told many times, but still, it makes you wanna see it till the end.
Watch it if you like post-apocalyptic films.
5.5/10
I really enjoyed watching this film and I don't understand why it has such low rating. I love post-apocalyptic films, and this one is really good.
It is not perfect, there are some bad things, but not THAT bad. Story is nothing special, chase & run. Post-apocalyptic world is not really shown, only desert. No buildings, infrastructure and transport. Low budget, I understand, but that is not the excuse. Aliens are designed really bad and this is the only thing I didn't like in the film. Like a child drawing adapted for screen. Disappointing.
However, it is watchable and I wanted to know what next will happen. Acting is good, their conversation, photography, sound design. The story is told many times, but still, it makes you wanna see it till the end.
Watch it if you like post-apocalyptic films.
5.5/10
Monotony of War!!!
zardoz-133 June 2016
Warning: Spoilers
Director Andrew Kightlinger's "Dust of War" drums up more dust than war. This lackluster pursuit thriller contains few thrills. Gary Graham, Tony Todd, and Doug Jones must have needed pocket change. Indeed, Todd clocks less than 15 minutes in it before he is shot by the villain. The action takes place at some unspecified time in the future after an alien invasion and an apocalyptic war. Scattered remnants of society have survived in this vast wasteland. The aliens resemble knights in ancient armor the color of red. A sadistic bald headed man with a beard and three stars on his collars, General Chizum (Bates Wilder), chases three determined individuals on a seemingly never ending quest once they break out of his prison camp. Abel (Stephen Luke of "War Pigs"), Ellie (Jordan McFadden), and Tom Dixie (Gary Graham) spend most of their time on the lam from Chizum's grimy henchmen. The action starts out on foot and then after an uneventful hour it hits the road with a pathetic excuse of an automotive chase. The widescreen lensing doesn't add any majesty to the story. The action choreography is abysmal. Land mines seem to be the chief obstacle in this yarn. Makes you wonder if mines were the preferred weapon against the aliens. Nothing memorable happens here until the last few minutes when a giant spaceship appears momentarily. They should have called it "Monotony of War." Rarely do I throw a DVD away, but "Dust of War" was so rotten that I refused to use it as a coaster!
I wanted more.
dalymcb23 October 2014
Honestly, yes, some of the characters were needing something, others were wonderful. It started a little off but it started to pick up later on. At the end I wanted more, so that is why I rate it as high as I do. I think that this is the case of we needed a little more information from the get go, take away 15 min somewhere and add it to the end to give us more on what had happened to the main character. I would watch a sequel and be excited to see more, but I don't think that this is a movie I will be watching over and over. Some good up and coming actors, probably just a new leading lady would have been good. She was a little too high-maintenance for the part.
Why So Low?
bovenb-331884 May 2021
The production value is good. The storyline and flow are fine. I'm a post-apocalyptic nut. I have scraped the bottom of the barrel of all the streaming services I have for content and to find this gem thinking it would probably be awful with a 3.9 is awesome. It's the most 6.5/10 post apocalyptic movie there is. I came onto IMDB wondering if there was a sequel and was disappointed to not find one. That ought to tell you something.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
