Powerful

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

This Strugatsky adaptation is in my opinion is made very close to the book and showing very well the complexity of the plot and the ideas of Strugatsky. Bravo for the film director for being brave enough to do it so detailed. To better understand the movie is it the best to read the book or at least the short description of the plot. The costumes and special effects are quite qualitative and definitely can stand to the Hollywood standard. I found the movie being highly underrated and extremely enjoyable. In my opinion it deserves to be added to the classics of sci fi, even through Massaraksh universe visually reminds Blade runner universe. Inhibited island plot, as generally Strugatsky novels is complex and maybe that is the reason why the movie was not valued and understood properly. My recommendation - to watch if you like serious science fiction and want to savor a great visual spectacle. Strugatsky in my opinion is the best there is of science fiction, or one of the best and being so serious about the books I would be very critical towards bad adaptation. But this one is a real success!

I have read and enjoyed the book and decided to watch this movie. First let me point out that I was really excited about it so perhaps my expectations were a bit high.This movie is based on a great (in my opinion) novel. The story is captivating and original. This movie keeps close to the the book with minor differences, which sadly affect the experience very dramatically.The creators absolutely discarded the atmosphere of the book. The gray apocalyptic setting of the novel was transformed into circus-like colorful (yellow and blue) scene. The world, on which the main character finds himself stranded seems more like it came from a funny cartoon rather than unbelievably horrible, hopeless and altogether dark "end of days" scenario, as it is described in the book. The main aspect became the special effects that are there just for the sake of showing off the computer graphics abilities, and are seen with no connection to what is going on in the movie.The acting is terrible, it seems as though they picked random people from the street and asked them to act. There are no visible emotions, besides anger, and the anger itself seems just like a crazy person making a "scary face" as it performed by most of the actors.To summarize, the movie suits someone with mental level of a five year old, although i wouldn't show that much violence to a five year old...

I am glad i don't mind about bad reviews because i really enjoyed this movie. Why people compare it to the book in a movie-review i don't know. I think it is not relevant. IMDb is a catalog for movie fans and the only thing worth mentioning would be that the book is also worth reading if you ask me. The movie is surrounded by a thick massive sound , the special effects are great. It has amazing colors and the acting is pretty straight forward. Okay, story-wise it may not be as well worked out as the book, but who cares? It is a movie. Also it has this mad-max vibe that is quite rare in movies. I look forward to part two. Well done i would say. If you are a reader you probably don't enjoy this one if i must believe other reviews, but if you are like me more into visuals and sound this is a great must see movie....7 out of 10

Can't understand all this negative hysteria. Most of which is actually about nothing ("crap! oh, such a crap! totally crap!" often mentioning that Bondarchuk is a bad director). Well, I can partly understand those who admired the original book (which is really worth reading) as they may have imagined everything in different manner (this is particularly true for sci-fi adaptations). But very often I read comments of people who seemed to be negatively oriented even before they really watched the film. The movie is not piece of art. It really takes a lot from classic sci-fi movies (from costumes designs to city views). And directing sometimes is confusing. But the film has one strong point - the plot, original story that authors reflected rather well. Special effects are good (they were performed by American specialists), acting is not bad (dramatic acting usually is not required in sci-fi action movies). In essence, the movie is good and worth seeing. Don't take negative comments for granted.BTW as far as I know Boris Strugaztsky (the one of two brothers who is still alive) liked the adaptation.