16 reviews
- icelandknight
- Oct 2, 2018
- Permalink
My main reasons for seeing 'Shangri-La: Near Extinction' were an intriguing title and concept, that it was part of my low-budget film quest after being recommended to me by IMDb in my recommended for you section and as someone trying to see as many 2018 films as possible.
The good news about 'Shangri-La: Near Extinction' is that there have been worse films seen by me throughout my life and recently, ones that are even more amateurish, intelligence insulting and ones that blatantly rip off infinitely superior films more cheaply. The bad news is that that doesn't stop 'Shangri-La: Near Extinction' from being very bad.
Am trying to be a fair reviewer trying to see the good in everything viewed, as always. It is very hard to do that here with so many badly executed elements, that look as if little effort was made. The least bad asset is the scenery which did have atmosphere.
Visually, 'Shangri-La: Near Extinction' looks incredibly cheap even for something made on a low budget. It's very drably and sometimes dizzyingly shot, incoherently edited (bacon-slicer-like) with glaring and unforgivably sloppy continuity errors. Even worse are some of the most laughable and pathetic-looking special effects to be seen on celluloid, actually looking they were done as an afterthought and on the small remainder of the money they had left. Nothing menacing or threatening and there are no surprises.
Can remember little about the music, which tended to be intrusive, annoying and out of place. The script is so awkward, cheesy and improvisatory-sounding that it is enough to make the toes curl in how awful it is. The ending is very predictable and pretty contrived.
There is absolutely nothing thrilling, tense, suspenseful, emotionally investable or fun about the story. The predictability may have been forgivable if the film was actually engaging let alone exciting but it fails to be either throughout. 'Shangri-La: Near Extinction' is basically non-stop dullness and intelligence-insulting ridiculousness, with unintentional humour because of the excessive cheese, bouts of mawkish and stilted melodrama and irritating character behaviours that makes one endear to them even less in a film with not one interesting or rootable character. Hated the sister especially.
As for the acting it ranges from borderline-okay to appalling, some try to engage with their material but the worst of the acting is so embarrassing one questions whether they had any acting lessons.
In conclusion, not one of the worst films seen recently or ever but very bad. 2/10 Bethany Cox
The good news about 'Shangri-La: Near Extinction' is that there have been worse films seen by me throughout my life and recently, ones that are even more amateurish, intelligence insulting and ones that blatantly rip off infinitely superior films more cheaply. The bad news is that that doesn't stop 'Shangri-La: Near Extinction' from being very bad.
Am trying to be a fair reviewer trying to see the good in everything viewed, as always. It is very hard to do that here with so many badly executed elements, that look as if little effort was made. The least bad asset is the scenery which did have atmosphere.
Visually, 'Shangri-La: Near Extinction' looks incredibly cheap even for something made on a low budget. It's very drably and sometimes dizzyingly shot, incoherently edited (bacon-slicer-like) with glaring and unforgivably sloppy continuity errors. Even worse are some of the most laughable and pathetic-looking special effects to be seen on celluloid, actually looking they were done as an afterthought and on the small remainder of the money they had left. Nothing menacing or threatening and there are no surprises.
Can remember little about the music, which tended to be intrusive, annoying and out of place. The script is so awkward, cheesy and improvisatory-sounding that it is enough to make the toes curl in how awful it is. The ending is very predictable and pretty contrived.
There is absolutely nothing thrilling, tense, suspenseful, emotionally investable or fun about the story. The predictability may have been forgivable if the film was actually engaging let alone exciting but it fails to be either throughout. 'Shangri-La: Near Extinction' is basically non-stop dullness and intelligence-insulting ridiculousness, with unintentional humour because of the excessive cheese, bouts of mawkish and stilted melodrama and irritating character behaviours that makes one endear to them even less in a film with not one interesting or rootable character. Hated the sister especially.
As for the acting it ranges from borderline-okay to appalling, some try to engage with their material but the worst of the acting is so embarrassing one questions whether they had any acting lessons.
In conclusion, not one of the worst films seen recently or ever but very bad. 2/10 Bethany Cox
- TheLittleSongbird
- Nov 11, 2018
- Permalink
Could have been a good movie, acting in some instances is terrible, others not so bad. The story line is unusual but poorly executed.
- sylvie-55507
- Oct 8, 2018
- Permalink
I tried, I really did. I think maybe the folks saying it "could" have been good may be right. It's just that I couldn't figure out how. Definitely not the worst movie I've ever seen.
- EddiesFathersSon
- Dec 26, 2018
- Permalink
I forced myself to sit through the entire movie hoping at some point it would improve...I was wrong, painfully wrong. This movie is not worth the time to sit through. There are plenty of other low budget movies that are far more tolerable than this, chose one of those instead of this abysmal piece of work.
- royeighmey
- Sep 2, 2020
- Permalink
I admit I only made it about 20 minutes into the video. All of it up to that point had been shot inside a warehouse somewhere. The described events didn't match up with the video. Looked more like a walk through of the script without any set design. I would guess they have invested about 5 grand in costume and warehouse rental. Don't waste your time.
- harvestnight-724-882160
- Oct 3, 2021
- Permalink
This movie really feels like it was meant to be the pilot for some new series. It has this odd intro spiel that's more common for a series, then it ends in a wind-up as if it's getting ready to start episode 2. But of course there aren't any episodes to follow. I'm guessing this was supposed to be a new series and it never got picked up.
As a standalone movie it's not good. The acting is very forced and wooden. The dialog feels flat and scripted instead of flowing. The special effects are cringe worthy.
It's an interesting idea, but needs work.
As a standalone movie it's not good. The acting is very forced and wooden. The dialog feels flat and scripted instead of flowing. The special effects are cringe worthy.
It's an interesting idea, but needs work.
- SPorche-872-142554
- Apr 18, 2022
- Permalink
- Woodyanders
- Aug 30, 2020
- Permalink
First off this is really a B rated flick. With that said it left me hoping for a part 2, 3 and so on. Yes there was some poor acting. Yes the back story was odd. Still the story and potential for future movies is wide open. Most of this movie was explaining the back story, character development and showing the many different factions. Without posting any spoilers the ending makes me believe they will make more. That is assuming there is a budget. Dont be set back by poor reviews. These types of movies are hard for some people to rate fairly. You have to enjoy the "end of the world" style movies to be a far and rate based on other movies of this type.
- imderrickjed
- May 28, 2019
- Permalink
If you make it past 30 minutes you have a MUCH higher tolerance for bad acting, CHEESY...'special'🙄 effects and (apologies to those actors who MUST already know this of their fellow cast members who this applies.... and if you happen to read this😏) REALLY bad 'acting'. Actually I was going to turn it off in the middle of the first scene but I believe in giving every movie and/or television show I choose to watch/view a fair opportunity to entertain me. Even though the potential was most definitely there (maybe with a bigger budget and/or better actors🤔) sadly this one failed MISERABLY😲. I SINCERELY don't get ANY joy in posting such a bad review and/or hurting ANYONE'S feelings but like I mentioned above "the truth IS the truth" and this movie....well.....was a BIG disappointment. My reason for posting this (my 3rd review ever) isn't to belittle those involved in this movie or to put down those 'things' I mentioned but to save the time of ANYONE who should happen to read this who is considering spending their time and/or money on this. As I remember others telling me in my younger years......"Just.........DON'T🙄😏" lol.
- thisismyemailmichaelstein
- Sep 19, 2022
- Permalink
A recurring theme of my IMDB reviews is the script. I have seen great scripts lift up severely low budget film because it had a solid foundation.
Well I present to you my poster child for a lot of money spent on a movie in DESPERATE need of a script ... and scripting. This was dripping with opportunities. Real good cinematography. Even better effects for a not-so-low budget endeavor. Its possible the acting would be considered even better than that, if they hadn't been burdened with the worst script I have experienced in a long while.
In the barest of hope that the crew is reading this ... The script is the easiest and cheapest thing to improve since it only requires the writers/directors to be involved and spend the time to make something good. This is well before you start paying cast and crew members. This script was HORRIBLE. You couldn't delay starting this movie for a month (or more like 3, as bad as this script was) before starting to shoot? SHAME ON YOU! The cast and crew now suffer for your impatience, as they have to live with the low ratings this movie will receive, or worse, for the high ratings it could have received.
Well I present to you my poster child for a lot of money spent on a movie in DESPERATE need of a script ... and scripting. This was dripping with opportunities. Real good cinematography. Even better effects for a not-so-low budget endeavor. Its possible the acting would be considered even better than that, if they hadn't been burdened with the worst script I have experienced in a long while.
In the barest of hope that the crew is reading this ... The script is the easiest and cheapest thing to improve since it only requires the writers/directors to be involved and spend the time to make something good. This is well before you start paying cast and crew members. This script was HORRIBLE. You couldn't delay starting this movie for a month (or more like 3, as bad as this script was) before starting to shoot? SHAME ON YOU! The cast and crew now suffer for your impatience, as they have to live with the low ratings this movie will receive, or worse, for the high ratings it could have received.
- wandernn1-81-683274
- Mar 25, 2022
- Permalink
This delightful take on a familiar trope suffers from stilted dialogue that hampers an otherwise engaging cast, good cinematography, decent wardrobe design, and well-done splatter.
- DancingBookworm
- Oct 5, 2018
- Permalink