The Lost Future (2010 TV Movie) User Reviews

Mad Max meet Lord of the Rings

[Knighthawk701 · 5/10 · 17 June 2011]

Okay this has been done before so do not expect anything really original here. It's Syfy working together with a German cable TV company so don't expect a big budget either.

The story is set in the future were a tribe of people have to hunt for their survival. There was a plague were humans would turn into half-beasts when they would come into contact with people who carry the disease. The tribe comes under siege by a group of these savages and three of them are going to get help.

The acting is quite good actually. The scenery is almost breathtaking and film work good. The big flaw in this movie is that people are clean and pretty. I mean, come one, they hunt like savages and live in huts and caves. Yet they look like they just came from the beauty salon! Yet the movie is still quite enjoyable if you don't expect another Mad Max.

I anticipated liking it, but.....

[lowellstone · 4/10 · 6 March 2012]

I tend to like direct-to-video movies in this genre, I know they are made with small budgets and with a limited number of recognizable stars, but they usually have ambitious plot lines and stories which can turn quickly by introducing new adversaries, terrorizing beasts, etc. Every time "The Lost Future" approached a point where it could have become exciting or, at least thoughtful, it took the easy way out.

It could have been much better, or at least a lot more fun. The giant sloth-beast appeared at the beginning of the movie and gave some hope that there would be more special effects, but it was not to be.

Keep at it SYFY; most of your movies may not be intellectual treasures, but at least they're fun!

Can you imagine the "Pitch" Meeting ?

[jcuticchia · 4/10 · 15 November 2010]

I can just imagine the "Pitch" Meeting.

OK. We have cavemen and zombies - well, not exactly zombies, we'll call them mutants. The cavemen all have perfectly groomed facial hair and the cave women wear makeup.

Well, these aren't OLD cavemen - this is the future and we have turned back into cavemen. Nobody can read, but everybody can speak perfect English.

Oh - and they fight giant Sloths and apparently (though not seen, but mentioned) Mammoths. Since this is "future-cavemen" those creatures were made by genetic engineering in the past - you know, before everyone turned into cavemen.

There are apparently only 2 people who can read. One of them is a caveman from a tribe attacked by zombies (oh - I mean mutants). His father taught him to read (apparently using Mark Twain literature) then his father died. However before he died, he made a "yellow dust" which keeps people from becoming zombies (oh - I mean mutants). So the son must use his reading skills (and apparently the ability to understand chemical structures) to make more "yellow dust."

Then we end it!

Q: Does he make the "yellow dust"? A: Can we say "SEQUEL" !!!

Great bones, ugly carpeting

[ivanovaat · 28 June 2011]

Wow, the reviews on this movie are all over the place. Is it garbage? Is it an overlooked gem? Well, a little of both.

If you've ever been househunting, you've run into houses that had "good bones" - good solid construction, nice layout, good plumbing, electrical, etc..... but these homes often have ugly carpeting, out-of-date wallpaper, and a kitchen and bath that need a MAJOR redo. That's this movie.

Overall, the movie has an interesting premise, a lot of fun action, characters that you care about and gorgeous scenery. Good bones. Unfortunately, the movie also suffers from silly mistakes and sloppy writing that needlessly diminish it. The scene, for example, where the characters come across leeches for, apparently the first time in their lives (though they are in a body of water IN the village), then in the next scene they refer to these creatures casually as "leeches". What? A second ago they were horrified and baffled at the sight of them! Or the fact that when attacked, they all cry out, "To the Cave!" and all run to what is apparently their Emergency Back-Up Cave (complete with an emergency "door" that seals them in).... yet strangely, the cave has no food nor water stored in it, and they are soon worried about this - understandably.

These minor, but frustratingly inane situations occur with sad frequency - but my hubby and I kept with the film because... it does have good bones, just ugly carpeting.

Really ugly carpeting.

Just watch the film imagining hardwood floors, granite countertops and stainless steel appliances. LOL!

:)

What was Sean Bean thinking?

[Fozzibear · 3/10 · 24 May 2014]

This film falls in between two genres; proper grown up movies with proper plots and real acting, and syfy type b movie camped up dross. Sean Bean was obviously brought into add some credibility to the proceedings but must have sat in his trailer wondering what on earth he had signed up for.

As far as filming goes the camera work was competent although fight scenes were haphazard, largely to cover up a lack of effective cgi. The music was absolutely awful and added nothing to the proceedings. The backdrops were very good but weren't used very well.

The biggest problem was the huge plot holes, literally everywhere. Some more obvious ones are listed below.

SPOILER ALERT

1 Cave - mentioned by other reviewers 2 Why were they living in the open? Surely a few hundred years after civilisation was wiped out, some semblance of building skills must have remained? 3 If the cavemen were surrounded by infected beasts, where were the traps etc? to protect themselves? 4 How did half a dozen men with rope bring down a giant sloth ten times bigger than a grizzly bear? And then proceed to not eat it, despite hunting it for food? On that note, if they were out of food to take such reckless action why were all the actors do flush with health? 5 Why were Sean a beans teeth so bad when he was the civilised one, yet the main hero cavemen were perfect? 6 How did the villain make it across the chasm after the bridge was destroyed and end up in camp five minutes after they arrived? Why didn't one of the men on horseback just shoot him instead of standing around waiting for him to load up his crossbow? 7 How can there be a sub tropical climate with climbers over old buildings yet the library full of old books he dusty, with no signs of any water damage to the books there? 8 Yellow powder - mentioned before by other reviewers.

There are more but I am losing the will to live at this point so I'll leave it there.

Best avoided unless your really bored or love had movies.

written by a ten year old

[bradsbucs · 1/10 · 25 October 2013]

okay, so the mutant thingies are brainless, animals who are humanoid, BUT; the future-humans-cavepeople aren't allowed into their territory. (HUNH? Wouldn't that require some modicum of intelligence?) Ah, but that's where the giant sloth is so they go there anyway because the tribe hasn't had meat in weeks and is starving. After they kill this 6 thousand pound creature they return to their village with one ten pound roast and the heart.(HUNH?, I guess they eat like birds.) Then the mutants attack and most of the villagers make it into their cave where they drop this clever barrier of logs at the entrance. The mutants are locked out, they are safe inside. BUT,,, nobody had the sense to store some food or water so they face the prospect of starvation. And no back door!(Way to plan future cavemen!!!) I could go on and on,because this story is full of inanities but I will touch on the biggest incredulity of all and it is the linchpin of the plot. The yellow dust. With the fate of the human race at stake and every PHD in medicine IN THE WORLD working unsuccessfully on a cure a few hundred years later some caveman figures it out with a few herbs and spices! Amazing!!

I was sad when Boromir was killed by orcs

[dx_baby · 5/10 · 25 May 2017]

Actually I was surprised that Legolas wasn't in this, he shows up in every Hobbit movie. At least Peter Jackson wasn't involved or this would have been 8 hours long. The acting is great for a SyFy movie. Just too many clichés to give it more than five out of ten. The animal fur clothes but perfect teeth and skin, the slo mo dying father, village elders who won't listen to new ideas, and lots of Orcs.

An above average SyFy movie

[trumpman · 7/10 · 14 November 2010]

Many of the SyFy Channel's original made-for-TV movies have been disappointing, to say the least. Their latest entry however, "The Lost Future", proved to be fairly entertaining. Which is something to say since I'm not usually into post-apocalypse-themed movies. Here are some observations:

1) special effects - though there were not that many required, the ones present were well done, eg. the big monster-creature. The cinematography was good also. 2) acting - decent and believable. 3) story line - starts out with clan interaction followed by its relationship to the tribe. Then branches out to conflict with main enemy, then adds additional allies (and adversaries). The Huck Finn raft was a nice touch.

This movie seemed more believable and "realistic" than other SyFy movies, albeit at the end the future still seems pretty lost to me. All-in-all, "The Lost Future" was a step above the usual SyFy movie fare.

I regret that I finished it..

[likansis · 3/10 · 21 December 2011]

There are movies that you watch and think! How did they manage to get money to make movies like this? (similar like Tomatoes Killers(and sequels) I do realize we all have our own taste in movies, but seriously!!! Story line, logic, the way people look, their believes...etc. They could of make movies like this back in 60. What happens when we watch some fantasy or Sci-Fi movies of 60's? we giggle and think... "this does not seams real... nether this... this would not evolve into that... this is just silly..." and so on! Just like this movie! What is the verdict? Do not watch this movies unless your only alternative for evening entertainment is smashing your head against the wall. This movies will not give you any idea of what would world look like after post-apocalyptic event! It will not wider your horizons of imagination or what ever.... p.s. Sean Bean is a good actor! He must of had money problems why he accepted this role, or it was a favor to some producer...

Underrated Adventure

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 16 April 2011]

In a post-apocalyptic world, a group of survivors led by Uri (Tertius Meintjes) and the ancients are organized in tribe, in a primitive society without technology and lives in a small village in the Grey Rock National Park surrounded by beasts that transmit a disease that transforms the victims in mutants. Uri's son Savan (Corey Sevier) is the best hunter of their tribe and successor of his father, while Kaleb (Sam Claflin) is the best tracker and together with his sister Miru (Eleanor Tomlinson), they are the only survivors that can read and writer. Their father Jaret believed that it might exist other survivors outside Grey Rock and left them alone to wander around the area. Kaled is a dreamer and secretly loves Savan's woman Dorel (Annabelle Wallis).

When the beats surprisingly attack Uri's hamlet, a group runs to a cave and block the entrance with logs. Kaleb saves Dorel from a beast and sooner Savan meets them. Out of the blue, the stranger Amal (Sean Bean) approaches to the trio and invites them to join his family, composed by his wife Neenah (Jessica Haines) and their son Persk that lives in the outskirt of Grey Rock protected by a river. Sooner Amal discloses to them that Jaret had found the formula of a yellow powder that cures the sick persons. However, the evil Gagen (Jonathan Pienaar) had stolen the powder and kept with him. Amal, Savan, Kaleb and Dorel travel together to find Gagen and bring the yellow powder to their tribe.

Yesterday I saw "The Lost Future" and based on the 4.7 IMDb User Rating, I found it an underrated adventure. The story is entertaining and Sean Bean and the unknown actors and actresses have good performances. The special effects are decent and fortunately I did not give credit to the bitter users that were not able to appreciate a pleasant adventure. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Futuro Perdido" ("The Lost Future")

Post apocalyptic vampire-werewolf-zombies.

[scottwallvashon · 3/10 · 13 November 2010]

Like many of the things the sigh fie channel puts out, this looked good in the previews. But it wasn't. It was just another endless, meaningless monster driven blood fest.

When they started on their quest, I had hopes that something remarkable—or at least surprising—might turn up. All they found was an abandoned city (expected) and a tyrant. There was nothing compelling or inspiring.

This is a future derived from our own civilization. The disease that threatens them is a disease from our own technology. It is just another super flu. It is nothing more than rabies on steroids. The magic powder is nothing but a vaccine.

And, of course, it was all the fault of overzealous capitalists. If only they had listened to the wise guild of environmentalist humanists none of this would have happened!

Skip this and watch Dancing with the Stars or Celebrity Apprentice. Sure they're silly…but they are not a disappointment.

Enjoyed it Very Much Above Average SyFy Fun

[elliott78212 · 8/10 · 24 March 2011]

Don't believe all the haters this was miles above the usual SyFy channels movies. Sean Bean while he has a small part adds a bit of validation to the Film. Reminded me a little of 10,000BC, the few special effects pieces were well done, acting was good overall. The movie moves along at a nice pace and you really care about the characters. Add to the mix some Zombies and you have a great evening of popcorn munching fun for home viewing if this were out on DVD I would probably rent it for my friends who haven't seen it. Beautiful Cinematography really captures the sites and help to draw you in to the overall story.

Surprisingly good considering that it is a SyFy production.

[p-jonsson · 6/10 · 4 May 2013]

This is a fairly okay movie. If you take into account that it is actually a SyFy production it is really fantastic and miles above most things produced by SyFy. It was certainly not one of those movie that left you with a what-a-waste-of-time feeling when you went to bed after seeing it in the evening. Rather on the contrary.

The fact that Sean Bean is part of the cast is of course a good start. I generally like his performance. I was actually quite disappointed when he was killed off already in the first season of Game of Thrones. The rest of the cast are okay. Perhaps not Oscars-winning material but good enough.

The story is a reasonably classical post-apocalyptic one where the survivors of the human race fight against extinction. There is no this-is-what-happened scenes whatsoever at the beginning of the movie. We're dumped straight into it and only a good chunk into the movie do we get to know what supposedly happened. There are certainly some silly holes in the story. Such as why this group of humans could have remained safe if their little place for generations when, in reality, the mutants could just walk in. Also, although the scenes at the ruins of the old city was quite okay the "library" bugged me. There was no roof for Christ sake! After the first couple of rains those books would have been gone.

Apparently there was some controversy around the movie when it was shown. The movie was intended for a 12 year rating but it got a 15 year one due to an "explicit sex scene". That is just so much bullocks. There is indeed a scene showing two people having sex from some distance. There is nothing "explicit" about it whatsoever. It is so typical of the brain-dead movie censors in a lot of countries. 12 year olds cannot be expected to see people doing a natural thing but stabbing people left, right and centre is fine? Otherwise the movie was a quite entertaining action/disaster/fantasy type of movie and, as I said, hugely better than most things SyFy-channel have produced.

Awful. Naive. Sexist. Unimaginative. Twee.

[misterlei · 2/10 · 21 May 2015]

This movie only has Sean Bean acting in it to recommend it but - guess what - in it he plays a rough, tough Yorkshireman (can Sean Bean play anything else?), albeit a disenfranchised one. All the villagers wander in the dust around wearing neat and pristine animal skins which are just a little too perfect, and the inhabitants themselves are all a little too finely-manicured (including beards and haircuts neatly-trimmed) to suggest the rough living of a sparse and dangerous post-apocalyptic world. The movie is kind of broadly plausible until it announces The Yellow Powder, the salvation of the human race, but currently in the possession of an evil overlord who looks like the Sheriff of Nottingham from numerous Robin Hood incarnations. The evil overlord's young daughter is just a little too eager to help the escapees, especially as it will mean inevitable death to her unfortunately evil father. Oh, and The Yellow Powder has a miraculous and instant healing power; and there seems to be quite a lot of it for something which was apparently in crucially short supply only fifteen minutes earlier and worth killing indiscriminately for.

This movie is ghastly.

Oh, and then there are zombies. Yes. of course there are the zombies. I'm going to train as an undertaker so that i can tie up the shoelaces of dead people. Then the Zombie Apocalypse will be hilarious.

Tip top Sci-fi

[mikelang42 · 16 October 2011]

Here is a tip top made for TV Sci-Fi movie. The script is clever, the film belies it's budget looking fab with the South African locations and all the cast shine.The creature effects are excellent and the action gallops along with some style.I would of really liked to have seen this on a big cinema screen rather than my TV,big as it is, with the bloody adverts every 10 muns butting in.Another problem with watching films on TV here in the UK is the TV channel logo top right all the way through a film. Someone explain why? I know which station i am on. Anyway can't fault this film so it gets top marks from me mainly due to 60 years of not seeing this plot used before in the Sci-fi genre.Well worth your time or rent it without fear of the cost.

Complete waste of time

[frukuk · 1/10 · 29 June 2019]

Goes absolutely nowhere.

Is populated by unbelievable characters.

Makes me want to put in the time and effort and expense of inventing and building a time machine, just so I can go back in time and not watch this.

Nothing here, but you can do a lot worse.

[bombersflyup · 4/10 · 2 March 2021]

The Lost Future is a very thin tale, not amounting to much, but watchable.

The writing's sub-par, with undeveloped characters and it's more like a tv-series pilot than a film. Has Sean Bean, Sam Claflin and lots of pretty people.

What is the storyline?

[Gracie96 · 2/10 · 7 September 2018]

There is no storyline to this movie. It is more like a made-for-TV movie than anything, although that is being generous. I thought with Sean Bean in it that it would be interesting but even he couldn't make this better. At least he didn't get killed off, which is what usually happens with movies he stars in. As for the powder they are searching for--that's it, that is the storyline. All in all, a really poor movie.

Colour me indecisive

[neil-476 · 6/10 · 6 April 2011]

I have mixed feelings about this post-apocalyptic tale of making extra yellow dust to prevent people turning into mutants and, thereby, breaking the power of an evil tyrant who looks like Nicolas Cage but isn't.

On the one hand, it is handsomely photographed, excellent South African location work, decent special effects (especially cityscapes), reasonably executed action sequences, tolerable acting, and generally a reasonable sense of production values put on the screen.

On the other hand, it is the most execrable twaddle, and it suffers from what I call One Million Years BC Syndrome - scruffy, mucky men and beautifully coiffed and made up women (with excellent dental work, by the way - glad to see that well-equipped dental surgeries and first class dental training survived the apocalypse).

Reasonable time filler

[Stevieboy666 · 4/10 · 2 May 2019]

Set in the future a disease has wiped out most of mankind, with only pockets of well groomed, toned survivors living like civilised cavemen in the wild. There is a cure in the shape of a yellow powder so a quest is on to find it whilst battling mutants and baddies. As SyFy movies go this one was reasonably good, though that hardly says much.Shot in South Africa, the ever reliable Sean Bean gets top billing. The special effects and make up are good enough, something that cannot often be said for SyFy. Plenty of violence, though I saw it screened on afternoon TV, so it is not very graphic. Didn't go in with high expectations but turned out OK.

Decent on its own terms, much better than SyFy average

[L_Miller · 6/10 · 13 July 2013]

A post-pandemic world is the setting for a very watchable morality tale about obligation to others and sacrifice for the collective good.

Some klunk here and there but the sets, costumes, performances and themes are well above the very, very, very, very low bar set by SyFy (e.g., "Mega Python vs. Gatoroid"), in fact far enough above that this is a decent movie in its own right.

Sean Bean is a decent actor and does well in this movie along with no- name cast, to a unusually deep level. Good action scenes, too; fights from horseback, group hand-to-hand combat, interiors and exteriors.

The major characters all have interesting conflicts and the interaction is believable (though as some have said, they are all waaaay too pretty). No eye candy shouting their lines; the actors modulate well and for a very large part play their roles believably.

There's also a nice structural component with parallel story lines, unusually nuanced for the media. The story lines alternate well between the questing leads, the tribespeople trapped in the cave, and Gagen's self-justifying depravity, are better than expected for the genre.

One of the other reviews said "Good bones, bad carpeting". That's well put - I'd say the carpeting is cheap, not bad, but that's just semantics.

To be clear - this is not an A-list movie; it's entertaining but low budget. The primitive tribespeople are groomed to the max and comically articulate, the effects are serviceable but still almost all CGI, one of the leads father seems to have somehow taught -himself- to read in the absence of any other literate persons (??), etc.

All of that notwithstanding, I have sat through way worse Hollywood crap with 100X the budget and one-tenth the script. Not Inception or anything epic, but worth a watch if you are looking for a couple of hours of entertainment.

I make all these points because the people who make these movies work just as hard as the Hollywood A_listers but don't get the recognition.

Just because it's a B movie doesn't mean there should be no standards. When a movie crew puts time and effort into making a structurally good movie, it deserves recognition even if it's never going to be on "Entertainment Tonight".

There should be a genre name for these films which not quite A-list but better than traditional "B movies" - decently made, not great art, but decent entertainment. Maybe "paperback movie" is a better title - other examples are "Snitch", "The Naked Kiss", "Love and a .45", or "Red Eye".

Decent for a low budget.

[frankblack-79961 · 5/10 · 27 March 2022]

While this is a low budget B movie, it has its charms. Sean Bean's character will surprise you as his role doesn't succumb to what most of his characters seem to. If you've got nothing else to watch and want a post apocalyptic film, then this might fill your time.

Miles above anything SyFy has done

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 19 July 2011]

I cannot believe how surprisingly good The Lost Future was. I mean there have been some surprisingly tolerable SyFy movies, but even they have too many mediocre moments to be above very good status. In my honest opinion, a vast majority of SyFy's output isn't worth bothering with.

The Lost Future was surprisingly good, and for me too good a movie to be airing on the SyFy Channel. Perhaps the ending could have been a little more, that said, The Lost Future is handsomely photographed and the few special effects there are done with care. The music fits with the movie very well, the script while having the odd cheesy moment is mostly entertaining and the story has a great concept that is told and explored better than you would expect, in fact this story actually feels as though it was written by somebody who cared about it, you find that with very few SyFy productions.

The direction is better than average too, the action is choreographed with skill and is compelling as is the acting, with the always solid Sean Bean giving one of the better performances of any movie aired on the SyFy Channel. Overall, this was surprisingly good and miles above anything SyFy has done. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Better than expected TV action adventure fantasy.

[paulclaassen · 6/10 · 2 August 2018]

The film has impressive visuals for a TV movie, and I enjoyed the subtle use of music during some scenes as opposed to the overbearing music Hollywood blockbusters love so much. It made me focus more on what was actually happening. The casting was also relatively good. (I must be honest, though, I did find Sean Bean's character, Amal, a bit unexplored).

The film does borrow heavily from 'The Time Machine' with regards to plot (to a certain extent) and make-up, and especially the way some of the beasts move. Some of the explanations on their knowledge of the past will have you raise an eyebrow, but lets just overlook that and enjoy this fantasy action adventure for its intended purpose: to entertain. And entertain it certainly does. The film features some great sets and locations, and the cinematography was very good, as well.

There's plenty of action and adventure here, and there were even some very effective, unexpected scares! Although I might not watch it again in a hurry, it was well worth the watch.

Very Average Quest Story

[Theo Robertson · 5/10 · 28 April 2014]

I had high hopes for THE LOST FUTURE . A post apocalypse adventure where a handful of survivors continue the struggle in the face of insurmountable odds . There's the added bonus of it starring Sean Bean and while that alone is no guarantee of high quality at least it hints heavily that this might be better in the way of something deserving in the region of three out of ten as many of these American productions deserve . That said as THE LOST FUTURE I quickly realised this was a production by the notorious SyFy channel and that alone gets alarm bells ringing very loudly

The film does get off to a generally bad start . Any type of recognisable very near future scenario along the lines of a John Wyndham novel is gone and humanity has degenerated in to the level of civilisation to that of the bronze age . In this case it's difficult to think of it as any type of post apocalypse drama except for a plot point where some of the survivors are referred to as " mutants " and carry their infection to other human survivors where you'll instantly be reminded of the infected from 28 DAYS LATER . As it turns out this infection carried by the mutants can be cured by a mysterious yellow powder where Amal ( That's Arabic for hope . No coincidence ) , the character played by Sean Bean has an inkling where it might be found in abundance so he leads a trio of young noble cypher people on a quest to find this cure . . It's not post apocalypse fiction at all but much more in keeping with a LORD OF THE RINGS clone , a feeling reinforced by Bean's casting where he spouts Shakspearian type dialogue . It's not a bad film but at the same time not a film that exceeds average at best