Riverworld

Rating:
Summary: Interesting
Review: A long time ago when the earth was a little cooler, I read the book this movie is based on. Ok, so I'm not that old. Anyways, this book - by Phillip Jose Farmer - didn't catch my intrest ay that tender age; but the movie was very nice. Nothing groundbreaking, nothing really new; but very interesting all the same, and extremely well made. The CGI is great, the acting is at least as good as most big-budget movies these days. The history might be a little slippery (Emperor Nero as a swordfighter fighting a mongol warrior? Um.... ) but the rest of it is a real gem. I enjoyed it and, should a miracle occur and it turn into the series this was intended to be a start to, I would watch that too.

Plot: an astronaut dies. Then he wakes up - in a bubble, in a river full of other bubbles. He's first awake, and his wake-up is a little different from everyone else's. They stagger out of the river - and after a little bit they meet their welcoming committee.

Rating:
Summary: Leaves you wanting more
Review: I got sucked into this one on television last night. It's far better than the average made for sci-fi channel junk. The acting is, at worst, competent and the story is intriguing. The effects and the world portrayed are excellent. But as others have said, There obviously should have been something more as only the most immediate plotlines are resolved. At the end of the film, our new friends are just embarking on an adventure of discovery (and possibly more) that looks as if it would overshadow anything that's already happened in the first 2 hours of the film. We're left with an unexplained race of shadowy figures plotting or planning things we know nothing about. And we're left with no idea why our protaganist, Hale, has been singled out and is the only one who can see these figures.

In short the viewer is left wanting much more than he gets, hoping that someday the series this should have been gets made.

Rating:
Summary: admirable effort
Review: I loved the book series by Philip Jose Farmer but was somewhat disappointed with this film and it's lack of follow up by the Sci-Fi channel. But it is totally worth your time to watch it if you are a fan of the books... I recommend the first book in the series, "To your scattered bodies go".

Rating:
Summary: If you liked this movie, try the book series...
Review: I read the book series a while ago when I was a teen. My memory must be failing, but I think I liked the books better. I liked the movie. It was well done for the amount of material they tried to cover. My recommendation would be to read the book series. It starts with "To Your Scattered Bodies Go", by Philip Jose Farmer. I know you will enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: Great Movie
Review: I remember when this movie permiered on the Scifi channel. I couldn't get enough of it. It has a great story filled with great characters. I cant wait to get my own copy of this flick

Rating:
Summary: A lost opportunity
Review: I think there must be some formula out there: for every x number of B movies made, one gem must be produced. This movie is one of two gems I currently know of that the Sci-fi Channel has produced along with all it's crappy movies (the other being "Darklight").

While loosely adapted from Farmer's great work, I'll admit the books would have been hard to adapt directly. Overall I felt the movie was effective.

This was obviously intended as a back-door pilot, but unfortunately the Sci-fi Channel never followed through. I find this sad because, while the characters were cliche, the actors were all more than competent to portray them, and could have easily handled the more complicated roles.

It seems the Sci-fi Channel is determined to continue pumping all the money set aside for original series into Space Opera, with a few annoying reality shows. This would have been perfect, it's fantasy (which is close enough to Sci-fi to satisfy everyone), it's cheap (by comparison to Space Opera), and it could have been just as good or better than SG-1, and Farscape.

I WANT SOME MORE GROUND-BASED PROGRAMMING!

Rating:
Summary: Fantasy Mixed With History
Review: It's about time this came out on DVD. My taped version is getting wary of me! This is a fantasy tale about a weird afterlife. It begins with an astronoght some time in the future dying. He awakens in a coccon in a river. He comes up on a beach and meets hundreds of other people. Few are ordinary, most are not. All are human, but one is an alien. A lot are from different times. There is a man who died in a concentration camp, a Roman Emperor, an Amazon warrior, even a caveman.

These people are brought together and imprisoned. They eventually form two factions. One is ledt by the Roman Emperor, as he brings back the glory of Rome to this new place. The astronught forms another group, who dodges the Roman and Joins up with Samuel Clemens on his riverboat as they head out to find out what is going on and why they are in this new world.

They better have a sequal, because it ends with the story wide open.

Rating:
Summary: Clearly Unfinished
Review: This movie actually isn't bad, and is a pretty decent portrayal of the Riverworld series (well...the first two books anyway).

The problem is, that this "movie" was either part one of a miniseries, or a pilot of a series never made. At the end one is left with the feeling of, "That was great, when is the next part on?" Only to find that there IS NO NEXT PART.

So if you choose to buy this, hopefully you'll do so fully aware that you're buying something that feels like a multi-part series, of which you will only EVER get to see Part I, with absolutely NO conclusion of the main story issues, mysteries, etc. (Sub-plots are resolved, but the greater thread of the story is left glaringly unfinished).

I have no idea if another movie will ever be made, or if this will ever be made into a series by Sci-Fi, I wasn't able to find any information on it, and actually went to Sci-Fi to look up when the second part would be on...only to find there was no second part.

And I ran across this while looking up Phillip Jose Farmer's books, which I'd recommend buying instead. At least those are complete.

I'm giving this 2 stars, because it is not a "complete" movie, and I personally would be rather upset if I paid for it only to be left hanging. If it had been complete, I would have rated it much higher. It was good, certainly good enough for me to be interested in looking for the conclusion which was never made. :\

Rating:
Summary: don't watch if you are a fan
Review: This was a complete bastardization of the wonderful book by Farmer. The books were great and original, but SciFi channel boiled two of the novels down into a truely crappy film, barely recognizable from the source material. They should be ashamed. Read the books and never, ever watch the movie.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best Sci-Fi Channel original movies
Review: This was something I would watch again - good production value and a compelling "Outer Limits" type storyline.

The ending was obviously leading up to something. I hope Sci-Fi makes another one, instead of yet another movie about alligators or giant spiders...