Epoch (2001)

Watching this TV film, a decade after it was made, I was impressed by the quality of the production but as the film progressed, there were some glaring similarities between this film and the 1998 film adaptation of the Japanese comic book, Spriggan, using a Noah's Ark plot device from 1989! The stone monolith, the key that opens to blackness, lights pulsating above, maintaining a catalog of all living organisms through time, and the protagonists being swallowed up into a white space. The end revelation of the whole device being a planet changing machine is ripped straight off the movie Spriggan. The race against time as the monolith was falling apart. All of it from Spriggan. Even the Colonel being the antagonist. If I had never seen Spriggan I'd give it a 7 out of 10. Since I've seen Spriggan however, I can't give it more than a 3, since the 4 points would've gone toward original idea. The acting was decent, but the writers were disingenuous plagiarists. I wonder if the creators of Spriggan know. Anyone know Takashige Hiroshi and Minagawa Ryouji's emails?

When i saw this aired on the Scifi channel in 2006, i thought that it would be another ultra-cheesy, incredibly terrible film that Scifi usually makes but was i surprised! Epoch was a great, classic B-Movie that actually had good CGI for a TV made film, decent to good acting, and a story that actually got me hooked because it felt like i was watching something made by Michael Crichton and Steven Spielberg, only on a much smaller budget. David Keith was really good in the cocky role of Mason Rand, an engineer who works for the DOD who's called in to work on a team in Bhutan where a giant towering object called the Torus lifted itself out of the ground and began to give of EMPs that traveled far across the globe, and began to heal the sick and reanimated the dead, which has doctors and scientists baffled. All in all, Epoch is a very good movie that can capture the audiences attention without being stupid and loud, and keeps to the classic sci-fi movie feel as there is not much action but more thrills, as they begin to study the Torus. This is a must-see for science fiction fans8/10 Stars***

The following review has been written keeping in mind that this is in fact a B-Grade direct to DVD Sci-fi flick and it is often difficult to compare the entertainment value and impossible to compare production of such films to A-Grade films. Especially when it comes to Sci-Fi flicks the disparity in production is even more apparent.Please keep the above in mind before reading this review or watching this movie.I rented this movie expecting an average B-grade movie as i am a fan of b-grade flicks but i prefer ones which have had at least a limited release.Anyway i rented this movie after reading the synopsis as i felt it had massive potential.Alas this movie which started with some great promise (with this great rock rising out of the ground and immediately doing mysterious things right in the beginning of the movie) and held the tension till halfway through the film, but it was all downhill from there.The special effects were again not to bad for a b-grade scifi film also the filmmakers were smart enough not to waste good money on expensive and overdone special effects and concentrate on the plot instead (albiet not to well).The movie is clearly inspired by 2001/2010 a space Odyssey but does little justice to an idea that could have easily been made into a big budget film if it was better written.The acting is not bad at all with only a one scene where a Chinese man gets shot with any actual hamming.The background score is quite nice though unoriginal and adds to to the mood of the film.The visual depictions, save for one good one of the core of the torus were again inspired by other works, but good never the less.The concept of the political drama was indeed the best part of the film and a concept that could have well been exploited for making a great movie, if the makers had done any research they would have found that Bhutan's foreign policy is in the hands of India and adding multiple players in the politics could have indeed made this otherwise humdrum scifi flick into a great one.The fiction itself held some great potential and displayed some brilliance I loved the part where the hero asks the opinion of a religious person so that no angle is left uncovered. The sci-fi centric dialogue itself could have been milked to make this entire movie enjoyable but sadly it was not so.In view of the above the lack of action scenes is sorely missed as the screenplay itself is to weak to make this movie enjoyable without any real action.In all an average B-movie that held some tremendous potential but failed to deliver.Watch this movie if your a Sc-fi buff(there is no action ) and are left with no choices or you have nothing better to do and this is coming on TV.

This movie (if you can call it a movie) is by far the worst creation on the face of the earth. My home made videos are 20 times as good as this piece of cr@p which is not saying much at all.The story line is just horrific the actors are horrible and the special effects are just downright lame.This movie deserves the Worst Movie Ever award.I have never been so disgusted in my life. I just wasted 5.50 cents renting this movie when i could have rented a nice Xbox game.This movie is cr@p Don't watch it at all unless you want to see how stupid these people are but don't expect it to occupy you for more than 10 minutes.