i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.

Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

I just saw the movie Beyond, few hours ago; I was reading through the reviews here, and unfortunately lots of people didn't understand the true meaning of it. I am glad to see some reviews where people got the main idea behind it!The relationship between the 2 main characters and how it is evolving is very well written. The music in this movie, and the "abstract" parts are so intriguing!This movie has soo much deep meanings and I think it s a must see!

Despite my drab summary line this is not just another apocalypse movie. It's a highly intelligent realization of a possible future alien contact scenario that is credit to all those involved. The characters aren't perfect, and therein lies its beauty. The boy is slightly to very selfish in his practical appraisal of life, which sways from shallow to understandably deep, whilst the girl is caring enough to generally see past this issue toward a more optimistic view, whilst at the same time being sufficiently combative (she doesn't let him get away with it) to keep one interested. The relationship begins well before the "end' and builds in a carefully choreographed mosaic, moving forward and backward in time, to unravel their issues, which are poignant and relevant, as well as the story of their survival after the "end".I was so impressed that my thought half-way through the movie was that I must ring the radio science call-in show here in WA (Doctor Carl) to find out if science has yet to invent or is trying to design, whatever, a huge self-sustaining spaceship, which can harness solar winds and gas particles and mine asteroids, etc, that would help to guarantee mankind's survival.There are many really good apocalypse movies. This is easily one of the most novel and sophisticated so far. CGI? There's very, very little, but be reassured the photography is sufficiently superb, and the acting so first class, that after 20 minutes you'll be glad you chose this delight for sci-fi movie night.Inspiring.

Beware - this review is very spoiler-heavy!As every positive review of the film I've read has stated, Beyond is very much a relationship drama, merely using a sci-fi backdrop to explore things in an unusual way. It's a terrible case of a poorly advertised film, as it's obvious from many reviews on here that people were expecting something much more SF based - to the extent that I've seen several references to people wanting more alien action. This seems to miss the point of the film entirely - that the post- apocalyptic scenes are entirely in Cole's head, and are him effectively putting himself on trial for his own weaknesses. Using the 'it was all a dream' twist is very dangerous, as it's usually a very cheap way out of a dead end situation, but in Beyond I think it worked incredibly well. The structure of what are presented as 'flashback' scenes build up brilliantly to the film's climax which, combined with Michael's monologue, explain almost pretty much everything that happens during Cole's hallucination. It may need a couple of watches to piece it all together, but once it falls into place it becomes obvious that what could have been a terrible cliché 'twist' actually exists to allow Cole's character to assess his personality defects in a hugely imaginative way.The heart of the film itself is wonderful, with a low-key but realistic relationship played out beautifully by the two leads. By combining this with the hallucinatory plot, there's a really unique take on a potentially generic plot - it's just unfortunate that most people coming to the film will be expecting something entirely different. Much like Another Earth, I watched the film with an open mind and no real expectations - only knowing it was categorised as 'sci-fi' - and came out having enjoyed a really wonderful film, regardless of genre boundaries. Anyone similarly open will have a good chance of finding a hidden gem here.

OK, so big spoiler here. Note the disjointed time lines. Note the different people (at the end) saying the exact same lines other characters said earlier, creating a repetition of "get a job", "pussy", "coward"... etc. Note the "end" of the so-called sci-fi plot where Maya entwines her finger around Cole's ring finger, which jumps directly to him in a clean hospital bed with Maya entwining her finger around Cole's ring finger.Does anyone else see that the so-called sci-fi part was actually Cole's death bed subconscious dreaming a disjointed time line? As in, can you say it, dream? That Michael did actually shoot Cole (think of this (the end) as the "beginning" of the movie, and the first lines of the movie were about "The Light"..as in go to the light? Cole's subconscious dreams of the aliens are imagined from the Tabloid suggestion of a near miss comet. There are no aliens, yes he and Maya were together in real life and his death bed subconscious dreams about the past come in ever increasing disjointed fashion and ever increasing fantastical imaginings. Cole's dying. Maya and the baby (and the rest of the world) are just fine.What this movie is about is a prolonged stream of consciousness (or unconsciousness) of a dying man who is a guilt ridden loser. The reason the sci-fi plot is essentially absent is because it is....except in the dying man's disjointed imagination. Why did I give it such a high mark? Because it obviously fooled everyone. Note the dream-like sequences, landscape, surreal scenes and above all that the sci-fi stuff was a "rip off" (as one critic noted) of other sci-fi movies. Of course it was a rip off, it was what was in Cole's head. Cole actually subconsciously wanted the end of the world, like he wanted the end of his life, so the suggestion of the Tabloid comet was enough to set off his "what if" scenario. Based on this interpretation, with clues everywhere, the movie was very good indeed. Watch it with this interpretation in mind and you'll see it.