Aurora (1998)

So way back in a previous life, I spent a little time in Los Angeles trying to make some contacts and get into the TV & Film biz. One day, I found myself being invited to a premier of some new sci-fi movie. "Awesome!" I thought, that'll be a lot of fun and a great experience. Aurora was that movie.There was a party at the theater. There were drinks, food, the entire cast and crew smiling and meeting people. "This is really neat!" I thought. Eventually, we took our seats in the theater, this movie began to play, and what ensued was the most agonizing time I've ever spent in a movie theater. I simply could not believe that this boring, cliché, cheap, and unwatchable piece of garbage could actually get produced. The movie ended, the lights came up, and what happened next was simply astonishing. The theater erupted in applause. Some people even stood up! I looked around and wondered if I was on crazy pills.It was that moment that I realized this eternal truth. Hollywood is completely full of bullshit.

For a start assume that a planet has been discovered in the not too distant future where people can walk about in their shirt sleeves and there's no problem with oxygen.There's no life there nothing but desert,a lake of poisoned water and rocks.The only building is a recent bunker full of supplies for future visitors to the planet but the trouble is its 400 miles away from where the ship crashed.The moral there is once such a planet IS discovered build more bunkers! The answer to overcrowded prisons is right here-just the place to send all the sex offenders and leave them up there to colonize the place and possibly start breeding as there are a few women of this kind. It doesn't really say what 6 men are supposed to be doing there but whatever it was they are unable to do it because their ship malfunctioned so we don't know whether the original idea was to look for life forms. I kept hoping maybe a big M sign would appear as they must have been hungry trekking 400 miles through sand.Ever tried walking even a mile on sand-its not easy unless its solid and with the sudden desert storms its probably not on this planet! Generally they were pretty nasty characters-one guy had a zapper and killed one of the party as a sort of mercy killing I suppose after he'd developed gangrene- and they were constantly arguing-the leader of the expedition had lied about the distance to the bunker so they had to walk even further.And they had to leave one guy behind as he'd broken his leg! Pity there was no cannibalism but not even any vultures around!Now that would have made this movie worth 10! The lack of food and water was an unnecessary addition to the story seeing as astronauts carry capsules and as this is set in the next century the technology should have advanced even further-at least to an endless supply of capsules Anyway they finally reach the bunker and thats where the movie ended just like that! Very disappointing-we never got to see them travelling back in the land rovers but if you work it out 400 miles at the speed of 4 miles an hour and thats only in the day as well-is a mighty long time. At least the ship should have been equipped with sand yachts!

Fundamentally a boring film. The idea could have made a good film, but this isn't it. It seems cheaply made, with little characterisation or acting abilities. To simulate an aline landscap they use a filter to give everything a strange colour. Very unimpressive. They walk for practically the entire film, and tat is as exciting as it gets

This is to the reviewer who mentioned that it was low budget and made on credits cards, so please give it its due. Sorry, that doesn't wash. I've seen other movies made on shoestring budgets that managed to be good despite their low budgets. And since most people won't know it was made on a shoestring budget, they only have the finished product to judge, and that seems to be lacking. Heck, Robt. Rodriguez made EL MARIACHI for $7000 (not including the soundtrack that now exists on the video; that was cleaned up by Columbia Pictures when they bought the rights, and spent $100,000 doing it) and look what he did; sometimes it's edited a bit too fast for me in one or two scenes)A movie lives or dies by what's on the screen, not the history behind the making of the movie.