Annihilation Earth (2009 TV Movie) User Reviews

So bad it's good

[twatchy · 2/10 · 19 November 2010]

This stinker is right up there with Titanic 2 although the special effects are marginally better I guess. The holes in the plot are bigger than those created by the collider - too many to mention but I especially loved the way a doctor and paramedics were waiting outside the undamaged hospital for our hero to hand over some injured kiddies while 30 million people had just been wiped out. It seems that emergency services weren't overwhelmed at all and the deadly radiation our heroic team suited up for quickly vanished so the porno actresses, erm I mean "top scientists" could display their own enhanced colliders in fetching cammo singlets. No further comment is required about Marina Sirtis' atrocious "southern" accent.

It's a shame because the basic premise of this woeful waste of time would probably make quite a good movie and Luke Goss should be given a chance to redeem himself with a decent plot, script and half-way competent cast.

Not worth the space on my DVR

[LilmanHSU · 2/10 · 14 December 2009]

I didn't expect much from this movie and honestly, I guess I can say I got what I asked for, so I give it an extra star for delivering what was expected.

This movie had a minimal plot, horrible acting, so-so special effects, and too many holes to make it believable. I agree with the other post above that the only thing that was impressive was the ending. Not your typical disaster film.

I have to point out one area that no one has mentioned thus far. The lab assistants -- Did anyone notice the fact that the two women were overly attractive for the role that they were playing. Not to mention their purpose was pointless. They had very few lines and those they did they hardly even got them out without it sounding like it was being fed off a teleprompter.

I love the fact that terrorists got into a facility with loaded weapons without even a problem. My gas station on the corner has better security protocols than this place did. I think the movie would of been more believable had they made it a 2 part mini series and expanded on the terrorists actually circumventing the security within the facility rather than them just showing up and shooting everyone without a single guard around.

David, it's all your fault!

[MartianOctocretr5 · 2/10 · 13 June 2010]

"Colliders" have gone berserk. They're some kind of mega-efficient energy providing devices (I guess), and now they're colliding with Mother Nature. I think. Things are blowing up.

One of the premier scientists in the world, who engineered this technology talks on his cell phone a lot. Usually to an almost unrecognizable Marina Sirtis (Star Trek, Next Gen). "David, this is all your fault. You better stop these disasters." She then hangs up, waits for another catastrophe to occur, then calls him: "David, you really need to stop these disasters. Now, David." It really started to sound like Hal 9000 after a while.

Anyway, what story there is, takes the normal course in a "world may end because of bad science" movie, with a very obvious but still nonsensical ending. As for Marina, she's probably still yelling at David.

Only two people on Earth are capable of making potentially Earth-annihilating decisions

[Memlets · 1/10 · 14 December 2009]

I actively hated this movie, and I'm a gal who tends to cut sci-fi movies a lot of slack because I love them so much, even the bad ones.

But this one -- wow.

The single stupidest and most insulting thing about Annihilation Earth (and of too many sci-fi and disaster movies) is that it gives only one or two scientists -- in the entire world -- the expertise and power to make crucial decisions affecting millions (and possibly billions) of people.

Annihiliation Earth is such a movie, in spades. No involvement with any national or worldwide governmental or scientific body -- just Luke Goss and Marina Sirtis getting all tense with each other.

This nation's already poor science literacy certainly won't be improved with preposterous flicks like this one.

Marina Sirtis In: Stuff Blows Up

[johnnylongtorso-600-858529 · 1/10 · 1 September 2010]

Poor Marina Sirtis. She goes from a steady job at Star Trek: The Next Generation, to being the go-to actress for playing women of a certain age from the Middle East (she even got a turn in the Oscar-winner Crash), and now she's reduced to this. I guess the recession has caused Trek convention speaking fees to dry up, or something.

Anyway, in Annihilation Earth, another entry into Sci-Fi's Bulgarian cinema oeuvre, she plays a vaguely official woman with an atrocious Southern accent who oversees a magical Large Hadron Collider-based futuristic power source. Part of which proceeds to explode, nuking a quarter of France. So she rides the head scientist, played by Luke Goss, to figure out what went wrong and fix it.

That's honestly about all the plot that makes sense, because stuck in the Sci-Fi plot blender is some stuff about a fellow scientist being a suspected terrorist sympathizer, a bunch of catastrophic things happening, like earthquakes, electromagnetic pulses, and satellites being pulled out of the sky, and, of course, a bunch of explosions. Either way, it ends with the world exploding, because Sirtis gives the wrong order. It's a tragic ending, especially because this film didn't get taken with it.

Annihilation -- bad screenplay, bad acting, bad science, bad film

[economista · 2/10 · 13 December 2009]

One extra star is for an ending that puts this wretched group of actors out of their misery.

Marina Sirtis' attempt at a southern accent was as bad as Andie McDowell's attempt at a British accent in one of her early films. It was completely unnecessary to the plot and was a terrible distraction that highlighted the overall poor level of talent in this truly awful film.

The characters talk about high levels of radiation but enter the radioactive zone with no ill effects. Characters drive around the countryside for no reason than to fill space in the empty storyline.

Syfy (formerly Scifi) has offered some superior series (Battlestar Galactica, Eureka, Stargate, etc.) but always seems to fall short on the films produced for them.

A film can overcome a modest budget and limited special effects with a good story and good acting. This film provides nothing of value.

"The Killer Teenage Mutant Supercollider That Blew-Up the Earth" ?!?

[thesteg · 1/10 · 17 December 2009]

Forget arguing about the acting - this movie should have been named "The Killer Teenage Mutant Supercollider That Blew-Up the Earth" or something along those lines. Categorizing this as a stupid movie would be an insult to all stupid movies in existence. At one point even my 9-year old nephew said, "Why does only one man know how to fix the problem instead of 50 or a hundred people?" I just shrugged and told him I did not think the movie was going to get any better. I was right.

There was never a moment of excitement, drama, anticipation, happiness, sadness, or other entertainment quality throughout this dreadful film. There was only the prolonged agony of enduring the immeasurable ludicrous science and technical mistakes, the incredibly lazy screen writing, and the shameful directing that resulted in a truly horrid movie.

If I find this DVD on sale for 10 cents, I will buy about 25 of them (That will be $2.50 at the register), toss the discs, and reuse the empty cases (I will be wearing a fake beard and sunglasses so no one in the store will recognize me and think I would actually be buying these for gifts).

Annihilation of the senses!

[TheLittleSongbird · 1/10 · 31 March 2012]

I wasn't expecting much considering SyFy's (very) dubious reputation, didn't get much. In fact, the whole film was a near irredeemable mess, with barely tolerable effects(only giving that phrase merely because I've seen worse like in Titanic II), slipshod filming and very lazy directing. The acting is terrible, Luke Goss is not bad actually but he deserved much better than what he got but Marina Sirtis with her forced delivery and a "southern" accent that is so laughable it leaves you speechless is a completely different story. The script has far too many stilted and stilted lines and contains scientific errors so vast and so glaringly off that you could tell that not much research if any went into it and the characters are underdeveloped and stereotypical. Not to mention the story, which was dull and very structurally thin, with many moments that didn't ring true to me, I agree about the issues about the lab assistants being too attractive and feeling too shoe-horned in and about the terrorists getting into the facility far too easily. The ending was the only part of the movie that didn't feel like nonsense, but considering how preposterous the rest of the movie is, this no-nonsense approach was jarring. Overall, really quite appalling. 1/10 Bethany Cox

Don't bother... the ending doesn't justify the means of getting there

[kewaynco · 1/10 · 12 December 2009]

From the start, it was unbearable to watch Marina Sirtis try a southern accent. She was never a great actress, her only claim to fame being the annoying Betazoid on STNG. And her acting was painful there. I seem to remember her in another SciFi disaster flick and her acting there was only marginally better. I thought she'd ruin this movie. But she didn't, she only made the torture more unbearable. To this they added two panting, sweating, whiny-voiced porn stars in unnecessary roles. What in theory should have been a good plot line was ruined by crummy dialog, trite and tiresome clichés, and horrendous acting. This was a disastrous movie, even by SyFy "original" standards.

I'll never get those two hours back

[tender_vittle · 1/10 · 5 September 2010]

I don't know why i didn't turn this awful movie off. It was like watching a shriner car wreck, i just couldn't look away but I got a good laugh at least.

The acting was forced and very poor. Marina Sirtis used to be a half way decent actress but that hokey fake accent and halting... way... of...saying.... terrorist every three seconds was irritating. Not to mention the fact that one second she has a down south drawl, then a Texas drawl, then a Kansas farm girl thing.

My 5 year old writes better stories with crayons, ie: the two lab assistant porn stars "oh my god he's been like shot, oh no, now i've been totally like shot too, i don't feel well"

Another person said the girl that played nya was like the UK Meghan fox, well the original was annoying enough and we don't want her, now we get stuck with a British version that sucks worse... KEEP HER, and if you ever see this movie for sale, buy it and use it for skeet shooting to save some other poor sap from wasting two hours of they're life to.

I Told You So

[gengar843 · 9/10 · 12 December 2009]

I've been saying this for years. I even wrote a novel (unpublished) about it. I like the no-nonsense ending. (PREACHING) Why don't environmentalists protest CERN? Isn't Earth an environment? All this talk of global warming is not hitting home for me, but the supercollider causing a black hole is very unsettling (END PREACH). As usual, the acting was overwrought but, given the ending, the hysteria fit. The characters were not over-simplified and the effects were effective. SyFy is so hit-and-miss that Saturday night can be a real bummer sometimes, but this was a pleasant surprise. I'd watch this a few more times, and probably will... till the end of the world (2010?).

Another SyFy disaster film rendered pointless by its terrible ending.

[jhpstrydom · 6/10 · 8 March 2011]

Clearly the script wasn't written by successful science majors and neither did they do any research for the film, to be honest this film has about several different plots rolled into one, there is this collider that blows up in France and wipes out a quarter of the country and the lead scientist that must find out what caused the explosion, there is also this subplot about one of the lead scientist suspected of being a terrorist and is on the run from the police and the actual terrorists.

All in all the film's plot doesn't really make a lot of sense because the stuff I just mentioned aren't the only plot or subplots thrown in, there is a whole bunch of them and very few of them are properly explained or not explained at all and the acting needs serious work, some of the actors looked like they didn't really know how to play their roles, they were either very stiff or their acting was almost completely wooden.

The part about this film that really made me feel like I wasted my time with it was the ending, I mean you get films with bad endings but this was the icing on the cake for me.

Final Verdict, the reason I gave this film a six is because it should do so well to actually give all wannabe film makers hope, because if the pros can make bad movies with plots that make no sense and effects that were done with Windows Movie Maker, then I guess the amateurs can too.

Hilariously bad, w/a couple decent effects.

[TheEmulator23 · 2/10 · 15 December 2009]

I like Luke Goss & think he should be in bigger things than this sort of garbage. He was great in both "Blade II" & in "Hellboy II: The Golden Army." In a lesser known role he made a bad film almost tolerable in "Cold & Dark." He needs the right role to become a big star. I guess as long as Guillermo del Toro keeps doing films we'll get to see more of him. This film is about as generic as you can imagine. I've seen worse special effects but the so-called plot is terrible. Talk about miscasting, Marina Sirtis is completely unbelievable in her role. It's already written badly but she was completely wrong for this. If you want to watch another terrible disaster flick that somehow the syfy (Quite possibly the worst renaming of a channel EVER) channel keeps pumping out, well this is fun to laugh at or with. There is worse stuff out there, but it sure as hell gets better. Skip this & keep hoping we see more of Luke Goss in the future because he has the ability, but even Tom Hanks couldn't make this better than this mess. This is of the same vein of "Angels & Demons" (that is not a compliment) but with 1/100th the budget. Again it always comes down to a decent script, & even w/the budget of "Avatar" ($300 Million plus) this would still stink.

So bad, forced me to register to post this review

[anortham17 · 1/10 · 3 June 2011]

Truly, truly awful . . .

I am a TNG fan, so watched when I noticed Marina Sirtis name. But that accent . . . bad, bad, bad . . .

The plot should have allowed a reasonable film - scientists creation threatens extinction of the planet. Spoiler: It blows up. They do keep telling you that, so its not much of a spoiler. But there - I've saved you 90 minutes of your life you will never get back . . .

Other posters who try and say there is some good acting or other features are wrong.There isn't. Wearing a Bruce Willis radiation suit painted black apparently makes you pant when standing still, or trying to hobble (badly) across flat ground. Poor collagen lipped silicon breasted science assistants are probably really nice people, but weren't required here - they added nothing to script or story line. Make up on survivors in disaster scenes came out out of my three year olds paint set. Applied by a three year old. Raging fires in desolated city scenes came out of a 1990 video game - its so long since I've played it I cant remember what its called any more. And I don't think the console even works - just like this movie.

Other posters have given some of the plot holes big enough to drive Jupiter through.

For plot holes and bad acting, pick a scene, any scene, and I'll provide the list.

Some movies are so bad they are good.

This one isn't. Its just bad . . .

We NEED a minus rating

[carnstabba-55672 · 1/10 · 4 May 2020]

I should have listened to the current reviews. After weeks in lockdown and bored brainless even a crap film has some appeal. I would have been better off staring at the wall for a couple of hours. Nothing I can add to what everyone else has said. Just avoid this film at all costs

This is just a shocker!

[michaels-8 · 1/10 · 6 May 2010]

Whoever thought Marina Sirtis could pull off a Southern accent should go straight back to casting school. Marina herself should be ashamed at even accepting the role. Her acting is dreadful. Most of the other so called actors don't turn in a half decent performance either. The movie is an insult not only to SCI FI Fans but to movie lovers in general. The pace, the effects, down to the half baked storyline all make for a very weak piece of wasted 90 minutes. Certainly the premise for the film is good but it is poorly executed on so many levels. I am constantly amazed at how some projects get off the ground. Watch for the supermodel types supposedly scientists. A priceless line delivered collegen injected lips as they swing by in an obviously CGI created chopper "I've never seen anything like this, makes Hiroshima and Nagasaki looks small in comparison". Annihilation Earth is excruciating and should have been annihilated from the outset. Don't waste your time - Marina Sirtis is an embarrassment to actors everywhere!

One of the worst movies I ever saw

[pineappleana · 1/10 · 6 September 2019]

When the "shooting stars " started to fall from the sky, they said, oh my, the satellites are falling.... doesn't the writer and anyone else know that by now? anything that enters earth atmosphere will burn to powder... the 2 women are better off working somewhere else, terrible acting, I hated looking at the blond with the big "fake" lips, and why is it that they always use good looking people so young for Dr and Physicist, Chemist and cop rolls with obviously can't have that much experience given their age? Einstein would be so angry !

Can be ignored

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 27 February 2019]

ANNIHILATION EARTH is another cruddy disaster-themed TV movie from the SyFy Channel. There's little budget and lots of cheap filming in Bulgaria which isn't much to write home about, but it's the writing which stalls this one. Luke Goss plays the ineffectual crusader hero, while Colin Salmon puts on a US accent as the scientist genius. Marina Sirtis shows up in support too. The film plays through the stereotyped characters and situations without ever picking up speed, and can be safely ignored by any right-minded viewer.

Not a movie worth watching.

[jvontheprowl · 1/10 · 24 March 2021]

Just don't watch it. The movie isn't even so bad it's good because the ending is finding out that every member of your family has cancer or dies on the same day.

I'm not blowing that over the top. The end is garbage even for a SyFy original

Then you have the anywhere America at any time accent of Marina Sirtis. One second it is somewhere in the south. The next second New England. It is all over the board.

Then there's the stupid ending and the stupid way it gets there that insults every one of your senses. It's not even campy or cheesy which could have saved this because most made for SyFy have a journey that they all go on that redeems them with being ridiculous. This is like going into a dentist to pay a bill but finding out you need a root canal on half your teeth then getting a prostate exam instead with a dental drill.

Seriously avoid this. There are other B movie slop that has entertainment value. This is not one of those gems. If you have an hour and a half to watch a movie, it's worth it more to file your taxes.

Total rubbish

[wpagefoto · 1/10 · 2 March 2019]

Once you get past the total distraction of that accent - rubbish from beginning to end. At least the end gave some satisfaction, no sequels likely here. The useless girls who got out of breath just talking (weight of their lips, perhaps, or the silicone crushing their chests?) The random bloke lurking about in trees, obligatory chem suits, vanishing clothing on the porn stars, bossy useless American political type apparently in charge in France, so many things. The quote for me was something like 'stopping the earth exploding, with 20 million dead - can't do that, the western world will be without power'. Logic was abandoned, fake explosions everywhere. I think the quantity of alcohol needed to make this a good film to watch would prevent me from seeing the television. Certainly won't watch it again. I can't afford that much booze.

Acting could have been better but the conclusion - wow.

[rand070357 · 8/10 · 14 December 2009]

I was a bit surprised by Marina Sirtis and her Southern accent, and the inconsistencies were a bit distracting. The acting of Luke Goss actually wasn't bad.

But here is the real bottom line, and it does make you think. Can a technology be created that could cause an extinction level event? Nuclear Annihilation is about as much as we have created so far, but what if a technology was created (super collider) that led to the destruction of our planet. Do I think this could happen? No, not a chance. But I like movies that make you think.

Here are some of the holes in this movie (not a complete list):

1. For technologies this powerful, where is the security? There is no way an Arab terrorist gets to a control room and can cause this much damage.

2. 1 man (Luke Goss) and 1 woman (Marina Sirtis) have all the control and knowledge to make the call to end humanity. As mentioned before, Luke did a fairly good job at acting out his part, but I believe a group of scientists would be giving their opinions on such a huge decision.

3. When Marina was talking to Luke at the end of the movie, she mention states, "how can we trust a man that has beaten and shot?". OK, I know they had a video screen and they could see the blood on his face, but how did they know he was shot in the leg? 4. Technologies this powerful will have so many fail safes and redundancies a terrorist would not have a chance to take this much control.

However, even with some of these plot holes. I liked the thought it created and the surprising conclusion. Not many end this way.

"David, what's happening?"

[david-haigh · 12 September 2011]

"...I don't know!"

This simple exchange from the film sums up this appalling film. Appalling. There are no redeeming features. Well, one of the women is quite hot (Nya). Everyones' accents are all over the place. Acting is very basic (apart from a black guy). The plot doesn't make sense. The science doesn't make any sense whatsoever. The special effects don't make sense. Nothing makes sense. Oh, France gets destroyed and there's this hot girl. That's it in terms of the good stuff. Very slow/special needs people might find it entertaining for a few minutes max but someone should make sure they know how to change the channel/hit the stop button.

Good but not great

[jelewat1 · 7/10 · 13 January 2018]

The ending of this movie did surprise me. The same ending was used long ago in another made for television movie - Special Bulletin. I think this was Marina Sirtis best performance though I did noticed sometimes her character had a (US) southern accent and sometimes there was no accent. The two hot looking lab assistants were just in the movie for show and since everyone on Earth is incinerated in the movie anyways it doesn't really matter. Good for a SYFY movie.

A Crime against Bulgaria

[nebula-37029 · 1/10 · 8 May 2020]

My wife and I have visited Bulgaria, which is the filming location of this "movie." In the last century, Bulgaria has suffered invasions, dictatorships, World War II, Communism, and economic stagnation. In short, they have have had many horrible experiences. Having this excuse for a movie filmed in their country is just adding insult to injury.

The "movie" is filled with really bad special effects, including a cheap depiction of ruined cities, and a fake helicopter crash sequence. The actors are bad, the accents are awful (especially Marina Sirtis), and the plot makes no sense. Science Fiction should have some science in it, this doesn't.

Not unwatchable

[SampsonRealty · 4/10 · 21 December 2009]

Marina has a great natural accent. She has a long list of accents they have stuck her with and I wish they would stop doing that to her.

The acting was OK, the effects were OK... this film is not "Gone With The Wind" and there are holes, but I wanted to see what happened next; that is usually a good sign for earning a degree of entertainment value.

Editing whoops: after Raja's import stalls on the side of the road, he gets out, looks around, gets back in and there is no head-rest on the passenger seat. When they come up and knock on his window, the head rest is back.