Sorry, this movie sucks

Simply A Masterpiece

Absolutely Brilliant!

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The movie should have been longer to better cover the book in more detail. Enjoyable but the plot was rushed to fit into only 90 minutes. With a longer movie much more detail could have been covered. As a much younger person I really enjoyed the novel. The movie did not do justice to the book. Having said that the movie was fun and bought back some good memories. The performance by Sam Neil was good and helped to hold the plot together.The time spent in visiting the old building, finding out about the aliens, and scary time on the lake was much too short. There was a great deal of opportunity to better match the book and create a feeling of tension for the viewer.In summary a good movie, worth watching.

I really liked this movie. It is thrilling, scary and has brilliant visual effects! I really liked the theme of this movie. Teenage fraternal twins Theo and Rachel who seem like ordinary teenagers but they turn out to be very significant. Also Theo and Rachel have recently suffered a terrible tragedy the death of their mother, which causes a rift in the bound between the twins. So throughout the film the twins not only have to discover their true destiny, they also have to rediscover themselves. Sam Neil is brilliant in his role as the mysterious and benevolent Mr Jones who becomes the twins mentor. Sam is brilliant in just about every role I've seen him in. Now the main antagonists of the film the Wilberforces, they are scary in every way; slimy, grotesque and terrifyingly powerful. They are something out of your worst nightmare!I liked the fact that this terrifying adventure takes place in the beautiful landscapes of New Zealand. It makes this movie look somewhat majestic in the scene of location. So overall this is a great movie. I don't see many Australian or New Zealand films that are this good.

I remember reading the book and watching the TV series as a child, so when I saw this was out in the DVD stores I was excited to revisit a part of my childhood.Unfortunately, this film compares poorly to the 80s TV series. The 80s TV series had a darkness and chill surrounding the Wilberforces that had shades of Doctor Who about it. A lot of the darkness and suspense is lost in this film. It spends a good 40-50 minutes before Rachel and Theo (and the audience) is even let in on the plot. Now this might be excused in some films, if the buildup is engaging enough, but it simply comes across as disparate events that seem to have no real bearing on the story. I felt that they felt obliged to include certain scenes because they were iconic from the TV series, yet they were divorced of all context in this film. Given the length of the film, the twins needed to meet Mr Jones earlier to bring everyone into the plot earlier and allow the suspense to build.Overall, I would advise anyone to give this a miss and try to find the original TV series - some of the episodes are on google video.

I attended the North American Premiere of "Under the Mountain" at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival. The film is a love song to New Zealand's volcanoes. Jonathan King's fantasy tale is "Lord of the Rings" meets "Alien" -- it may be a bit scary for younger kids, though. Sam Neill does a star turn here as an aging wizard-like Fagan. Only he has the knowledge to help save the world from the evil Gargantua. But it's up to teenage twins Theo and Rachel (young newcomers Tom Cameron and Sophie McBride) to wield the power. The charming kids steal the show here and couldn't be more engaging. The multi-layered story more than held my interest -- there's plenty here for adults and youth alike. Production values are stellar with mind-boggling visual and special effects, and "Under the Mountain" boasts one of the best scores I've heard in a long time. The lush cinematography amounts to a New Zealand travelogue. The film is dazzling and puts many others of its ilk to shame. "Under the Mountain" should do well among family audiences.