Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

In Egypt, Prof. Hayden Masterton (John Rhys-Davies) organizes an expedition to a pyramid to witness an event that takes place only once every 5000 years. But he needs to buy a key from a local dealer that will awaken aliens from outer space that are hidden inside the pyramid. However the treasure hunter Peter Levitz (Michael Higgs) kills the dealer with Masterton's walking stick and steals the key; then he blackmails Masterton to participate in the expedition. When the team breaks in the pyramid, they find deadly traps and only a few will survive and Masterton uses the blood of his own daughter to activate a system to awaken the aliens. Will Earth be doomed to an apocalypse?"Prisoners of the Sun" is a movie of action, adventure and horror with a lame and messy unoriginal story. It is funny to see Prof. Hayden Masterton preparing an expedition where a key is necessary but he will only buy it in the last minute. The plot and unpleasant characters are near ridiculous but the acting is reasonable despite the histrionic John Rhys-Davies performing the lead role. The special effects are decent but the disappointing conclusion is awful and this film deserves the IMDb User Rating. My vote is three. Title (Brazil): "O Despertar dos Deuses" ("The Awakening of the Gods")

"Prisoners of the Sun" starts out with an interesting premise--the idea that elements of Egyptian mythology actually represent extraterrestrial powers who may be brought back to Earth when the signs are right-- but unfortunately fails to develop this idea very well. Admittedly, some of the problems the film has are the result of a low budget, but there are dramatic weaknesses that go beyond that. First and foremost, the script is incredibly tepid, and not much of anything happens for long stretches of time. Even towards the end, when our cast of characters are on the brink of a historic discovery in the haunted catacombs of an ancient pyramid, there is little action or suspense. Naturally, since this is a film about ancient Egyptian mysticism and curses, there is an undead mummy, but despite the mummy's prominent disposition in the film's trailer it actually has only a tiny role in the story and disappears from the proceedings pretty quickly. The screenplay needed a healthy dose of adrenalin to bring the admittedly interesting plot to life, but instead there is simply a lot of unconvincing exposition from one scene to the next. As a result, even the film's relatively short running time seems to go on interminably. One the plus side, the cast is for the most part decent and capable, though regrettably the one exception is the actor playing the part of Dr. Adler, the film's hero, as he is badly miscast as a scholar and is totally unconvincing in the role. Overall, "Prisoners of the Sun" is just too uninvolving and lackluster to recommend. There was the potential to make a respectable movie, but the opportunity is never realized.

I remember a time, when I used to love movies like this. Low budget, weird characters, easy to follow, clear cut characters, who'd be either good or bad. It does feel like a throwback, but not in a good sense. Of course there have been worse movies and considering the budget this movie (probably) used, this is pretty decent.Still it would be too much to say, you have to watch this. Even as a party movie it doesn't really work. You have Mr. Davies in it though, who while still acts as if this is something important. Producers got their money worth there. Judging the other actors on this movie alone would be a bit unfair though. Sometimes you have to start small ...

Drawn in by the premise, appetite whetted by the opening sequences promising the possibility of a cool battle between aliens who had been here thousands of years ago and scrappy present-day humans for the domination of earth, I found myself taken ever deeper into a journey of ancient dangers, wondering mostly which character would die next and by what predictable means, although the millions of wasps was a novel idea. Too bad that death also killed any further expectation of something new in this well-traveled genre, as the wasps were duly conquered with flame-throwers that could easily have been used before the young soldier volunteered his life for the greater good of the mission. It was clear this crew of boundless treasure seekers was inept when they went in but this lowered expectations to nil.I was still waiting for the battle to ensue when eight shots were fired from a six-shooter, ending any such possibility.Only Emily Holmes as the clairvoyant Claire Becket who declares "I don't have a good feeling about this" (truer words have rarely been spoken) pulls off her role with some aplomb. David Charvet appears never to have left the set of Melrose Place and Carmen Chaplin almost pulls off the role of mistreated daughter descended from ancient princess but misfires, just like the romance between her and Charvet. John Rhys-Davis has, of course, been here before so he knew his lines but introduces nothing new to the role.This would have been a good sci-fi read as a short novel. Alas, books don't get funded these days, but less than optimal films do. Listen to Emily: don't go there.