Customer Reviews

Riverworld

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

It's a shame that this movie has been so slated by the critics, I really liked it and it's a double shame that a series didn't come out of it, because it was left wide open for that at the end of the movie.

All in all we have a good story-line and some very competent international actors and actresses.

Our main protagonist and hero is a man called Jeff Hale (a sexy American in the guise of Brad Johnson), once an astronaut who died in a crash and is reborn out of a bubble that is pierced with a spear along with other people who have lived throughout most of human history and who have somehow ended up on a mysterious planet called 'Riverworld'.

It seems that anyone who has ever lived and died on Earth comes to Riverworld rather than an afterlife and this does not exclude other world beings either. An extra-terrestrial call Monat (Brian Moore) has the unfortunate luck of dying on earth in 2039 when his space craft crashed and he too is "reborn" to Riverworld and all its mysteries and secrets.

The humans which include Emily Lloyd as Alice Liddell Hardgreaves, an African Priestess call Mali, (Karen Holness) and one Alien are pretty much left to their own devices and as you can imagine they end up becoming quite tribal in their outlook, especially as the Emperor Nero (the English actor Jonathan Cake looking pretty hot despite being a baddie!) has been reborn and he's looking to rule the "new born ones" in the only way he knows how, through the blade and sheer brutality,

A few of the "new born ones" get together and with Hale lead a revolt against Nero and in a river-boat designed by the mysterious Sam (Australian actor Cameron Daddo) set off to explore this mysterious new world made up of connecting rivers that lead to.....?

There is also a race of black hooded 'beings' who seem to have some sort of cosmic plan for the rebels in the riverboat but we aren't privy to what it is and this is a little irritating as there is no sequel to explain it all but that is what happens when a pilot movies flops.

All the same I really enjoyed this, and there is a nice little twist in the tale as you find out who "Sam" was in his previous life.

Not as bad as all the critics are making out, there are a lot worse Sci-Fi films out there, that is for sure!

This movie actually isn't bad, and is a pretty decent portrayal of the Riverworld series (well...the first two books anyway).

The problem is, that this "movie" was either part one of a miniseries, or a pilot of a series never made. At the end one is left with the feeling of, "That was great, when is the next part on?" Only to find that there IS NO NEXT PART.

So if you choose to buy this, hopefully you'll do so fully aware that you're buying something that feels like a multi-part series, of which you will only EVER get to see Part I, with absolutely NO conclusion of the main story issues, mysteries, etc. (Sub-plots are resolved, but the greater thread of the story is left glaringly unfinished).

I have no idea if another movie will ever be made, or if this will ever be made into a series by Sci-Fi, I wasn't able to find any information on it, and actually went to Sci-Fi to look up when the second part would be on...only to find there was no second part.

And I ran across this while looking up Phillip Jose Farmer's books, which I'd recommend buying instead. At least those are complete.

I'm giving this 2 stars, because it is not a "complete" movie, and I personally would be rather upset if I paid for it only to be left hanging. If it had been complete, I would have rated it much higher. It was good, certainly good enough for me to be interested in looking for the conclusion which was never made. :\

It's been quite a while since I've read Philip Jose Farmer's RiverWorld books, but I didn't think this movie was quite up to snuff. The premise is the same, the dead from all periods of history find themselves resurrected in RiverWorld. Gang fighting, Lord-of-the-Flies-type stuff ensues. My main attraction to the books was the protagonist, the dashing explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton. (Found the source of the Nile, first westerner into Muslim kingdoms, translated the Arabian Nights and the Kama Sutra, etc. He was the real-life version of the Victorian hero all those romance novelists try to recreate.) This movie has Brad Johnson playing an astronaut as the main character. Mark Twain is kept as a character, building Mississippi paddle wheelers to navigate the mighty river, but sadly John Lackland (Former King of England, Richard the LionHeart's brother - you know, the evil King John from the Robin Hood tales) has been changed to Nero, probably because the average TV viewer would say "John who?". Still, not a bad watch, could make an interesting series - the abrupt ending is obviously a set-up for a potential series.

If the concept interests you, I recommend reading the books instead. TO YOUR SCATTERED BODIES GO, THE FABULOUS RIVERBOAT, THE DARK DESIGN, THE MAGIC LABYRINTH, and THE GODS OF RIVERWORLD, all by Philip Jose Farmer. And if you're a Sir Richard Francis Burton junkie, read THE DUCHESS by Jude Deveraux, a funny and delicious romance with a Richard Burton clone as the protagonist.

If you read the complete Riverworld Series by P. Farmer, don't waste your time watching this pathetic SCIFI Channel movie. It was a total disappointment.

I loved the book series by Philip Jose Farmer but was somewhat disappointed with this film and it's lack of follow up by the Sci-Fi channel. But it is totally worth your time to watch it if you are a fan of the books... I recommend the first book in the series, "To your scattered bodies go".

I originally made a point to watch this film because it was advertized as being from Alex Proyas (who has made such great movies as The Crow, I Robot, the Knowing, Garage Days and one of my all time favorites... Dark City). However, Alex was only a producer on Riverworld. After watching it, I thought it was terrible. So I say if you were considering this film based on Proyas' connection, do your self a favor & skip it. Riverworld does not deserve to be listed on the same page as his other movies.

I watched this stinker on the Sci-Fi Channel when it first came out and was horrified. I've been a Riverworld fan since the first book was published in the '70s and I cannot believe that the makers of this thing had the audacity to name it after the great series by PJF. I can't believe that anyone who's read the books would actually recommend it. Perhaps some day a good movie version of the books will be made but this ain't it. This monstrosity needs to be buried and forgotten.

5 stars for what movie they produced, 1 star for yet another unfinished story. This could have been so much more... -kd5-

This film would have been a pretty good made for TV movie if it were a mini-series instead. I have read all of the Riverworld books, and tho the movie departs from them it portrayed the concept of the books rather well. If there were 2-3 sequel movies, this could have been good.

I got sucked into this one on television last night. It's far better than the average made for sci-fi channel junk. The acting is, at worst, competent and the story is intriguing. The effects and the world portrayed are excellent. But as others have said, There obviously should have been something more as only the most immediate plotlines are resolved. At the end of the film, our new friends are just embarking on an adventure of discovery (and possibly more) that looks as if it would overshadow anything that's already happened in the first 2 hours of the film. We're left with an unexplained race of shadowy figures plotting or planning things we know nothing about. And we're left with no idea why our protaganist, Hale, has been singled out and is the only one who can see these figures.

In short the viewer is left wanting much more than he gets, hoping that someday the series this should have been gets made.