Audience Member
Slow burn - excellent dialogue. Thoroughly enjoyed the film.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/02/23
Full Review
Audience Member
A very important watch for Sci-fi and Middle Eastern film enthusiasts. Though made popular mostly by haters and movie bashers. Its a high production. And an exceptionally interesting screenplay for those who fancy psychoanalysis and surreal themes. But none of the people taken for this film were actual actors except 1. So the acting is bad. But if you like extreme indie cinema or experimental movies like me. This is for you.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/15/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Many a struggling film director is trying to have genuinely captivating work released, if even at a festival, just to prove their mettle. With undeniable talent, an instinct for storytelling, and enough passion for the visual medium, they dedicate years on end to perfecting their craft. Very few, if at all in this generation, make it.
So where do I begin with this one? Goodness gracious...
'Aerials' is proof, like another reviewer wrote on IMDb, that enough money can buy a person the right amount of time, budget, and influence to get a production barely the quality of a student film- not just produced...but shown on the most popular worldwide streaming network. The entire situation is a complete disgrace.
Nobody in this film seems to understand the basic foundations of visual storytelling.
...not the Writer: The concept is stupid, there is absolutely no discernible coherent introduction to the story, there's nothing to encourage you to continue watching- the basic rule of filmmaking is that if you don't introduce something captivating within the first 15 minutes, you will lose the audience- and the dialogue is ridiculously inorganic. Zero story arc. Zero character development...And did you actually use the word "spacemen" to describe aliens?!
...not the DOP: Digital age as we may be, there is no excuse at all to film this in what seems to be 4K and make it pop off the screen with exaggerated color correction.
...not the Editor: How many shots were taken for each conversation that you had to make a clear cut between each line? Has this person ever head of J and L cuts?!
...not the Casting Director: I don't know what they were thinking when they were searching for people. There isn't a hint of any natural talent in any of these people. Trudging along with monotonous voices, expressionless faces, and minimum movement. Believe me, there's talent out there. You weren't even bothered to look.
...not the Cast: Most people commented that the male protagonist seems to be doing a bad impression of Vin Diesel. I say he was doing a pretty successful impression of a tree...and I'm yet to feel a need to punch a tree for being obnoxious barely 5 minutes within meeting it. I genuinely couldn't tell if the character was meant to be a condescending know-it-all, or if that was just the actor being his normal self. They seem to interchangeable. And what sort of salesman, even if insurance, has absolutely zero charisma like the one portrayed here? I'm pretty sure, as ridiculous as the concept of selling what he does [won't give away a spoiler] you'd need as much influence power as you could. No. Zero. This guy couldn't even be the cashier at your local supermarket.
...not the Animator: Two dimensional Adobe CS produced images superimposed over real footage with no significant surface details or reason to consider them sinister.
...not the Production Designer: There is nothing realistic about a young couple in their early 30s living in a lavish two-storey villa. The director's house, perhaps?
...not the Sound Editor: No Foley? No ADR? Crowd noises? Nothing there except the dialogue, not even atmospherics.
...not the Music Composer or Music Director: One keyboard note repeated ad infinitum does not a score make. Kudos for the music director to try and promote local musicians, but there's a time and place for everything. Nothing was suitable for its scenes, let alone in the right place.
... and especially not the Director: S. A. Zaidi's vision is as one-dimensional as his film. There's nothing realistic about it. A whole planet being observed by extraterrestrial vehicles and not a single person seems to be in panic mode. Every day is just a normal quiet day where people have normal (?) conversations and where absolutely nothing keeps them from going insane in a world that has lost all methods of communication. Science Fiction still needs to have a touch of reality. There is zero here. There isn't anything to keep the audience on the edge of their seats, not even an action sequence.
If you manage to survive past the first ten minutes of this film and make it all the way to the end credits, I commend you for your resilience. But there you will find that Zaidi is not only the director, he also takes up the tasks of (in order of appearance in the sequence):
Story Writer
Screenplay Writer
Director of Photography
Camera Man
Boom Operator (!)
While I'm fully understanding that the limitation on what can be locally produced in the Middle East has to remain within the box of conservative creativity, one has to at least make sure they are in the right sized box. Any normal production can use a shipping container's worth of volume for creativity and execution without having to cross into lines of the unknown or forbidden. This movie, however, has opted to work within a matchbox.
This movie should be shown to first-year film students as an example of how *not* to make movies, but I wouldn't for the life of me recommend it as viewing material for anybody. Don't...just don't bother.
Or, if you must during these stay-at-home times, wear a mask...over your senses.
Rated 0.5/5 Stars •
Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars
02/10/23
Full Review
Audience Member
This was the MOST BORING MOVIE I'VE EVER WATCHED. The point? None. Bad acting. Slow. No explanation. They say it's a drama. Yeah, dramatically BORING. The story goes no where. The Netflix disclaimer says "fear"........... Wrong again. Barely sci-fi. Waist of money. Whoever read this script and said "yes!!! Omg yes!!! Let's do it!!!" Is an idiot. If you don't believe this is the worst film ever made go waist an hour and a half trying not to fall asleep and power through to the horrible ending.... Zzzzzzz
Rated 0.5/5 Stars •
Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars
01/22/23
Full Review
Audience Member
WORST ACTING OF THE AGES! TERRIBLY DIRECTED AND FILMED. HOW DID THIS FILM MAKE IT ON NETFLIX ???
Rated 0.5/5 Stars •
Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars
02/02/23
Full Review
Audience Member
I stopped watching this movie after 5 minutes. It wasn't because nothing of interest had happened, or that the characters were without interest. It was because the acting was SO BAD...
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
02/21/23
Full Review
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