I appreciate the overall message of it, but really hated the movie. It was a lot of nothing, and some very dumb scenes. It felt like some of the bad M Night Shamalan movies with the shot of a character staring at something and then we see it a little later

Just very heavy handed

Not that great. Overall I was disappointed.

Holy hell that was a pretentious, on-the-nose, absurd, piece of cr*p. Unnecessary long shots, zoom ins, and camera angles. Absurd dialogue like the 13 year old quoting the West Wing directly. "I don't know what'd I'd do without GPS or the internet." Unintentionally racist daughter, and the movie was clearly trying to paint her as in the right. Absurd scenarios (they are a 2 minute drive from the city but everyone has disappeared??), confusing music choices, annoying and misplaced horror movie violin rifts, bizarre character reactions (a teenage kid being nonplussed by losing all his teeth?), and the writer's complete lack of understanding of technology. What was the point of painting the son as a creep or the masturbation scene? Characters talking mysteriously rather than just talking straight. Painting the Julia Robert's character as racist when any sane person in her situation would be acting the same (no, I'm not letting two random people into my airbnb in the middle of the night, especially when he can't provide identification).

Then there is the bizarre happenings or scenes that really do deserve explanation, that are never explained.

What the hell was the point of the shot of the American flag on the moon? What was the point of the deer scenes? Who was sleeping in the cabin? What was the noise and just why?

This movie desperately needed an editor to cut out an hour of this mindless slop, and needed a co-writer that was willing to tell the director "No".

I totally get that this movie was attempting to be metaphorical, but when you have characters literally telling you the points you are supposed to be taking away or just bashing you over the head with "wink, wink" statements, it comes off as amateurish. This felt like a film student movie who lucked into getting a $50 million budget and free reign to do whatever he wanted with it.

College film project. Ham fisted. To the point it feels intentional. If it was intentional then the movie is a C, unintentional D.

Dr Not Yet summed it up beautifully. Just a poorly done movie that could have been really good given the subject and actors. I think this was probably Ethan Hawke's worst performance ever.

It insists upon itself.

I haven't seen it yet and probably won't at this point, but at the very least it's sounding more and more like the rare instance where a sarcastic "Thanks, Obama!" can appropriately be used on this board...

MULTITALENTED: Barack Obama got high praise from director Sam Esmail after the two collaborated on the new Netflix thriller "Leave the World Behind." The former president and First Lady Michelle Obama were executive producers on the film and gave Esmail a lot of notes. pic.twitter.com/kdIQRNQR8U

— AP Entertainment (@APEntertainment) December 8, 2023

Thanks Obama

/sarcasm

"A tick bite, must be Lyme disease."

I love dystopian movies but this was so bad.

Been watching old Letterman clips on Youtube, and just saw one from the early 80s w/ Albert Brooks talking about looking for movie financing. "Hey, you were successful in the oil business, I bet you know how to make a movie!"

Netflix seems to have taken a similar approach w/ Obama. "Hey, you were a successful politician, why don't you make movies and TV shows?" Except I think the financing flows in a different direction.

Apparently the book is about class and race and how we are still bound to prejudice. Race was obvious but class? They were all rich idiots.

Reactions of Julia Roberts and house owners daughter were ridiculous. How the husband wouldn't help the scared woman because he didn't speak Spanish.
Brother was a jerk/karma with the tick bite.

Is this Lost? What's up with the deer?

We got to see people for who they really were before they realized Allah was going to do some damage like… program Teslas to drive into each other but not a brand new Jeep Cherokee for some reason.

The movie was all over the place. I do find it really damn bizarre an ex President (regardless of politics) wanted to work on a movie where it basically shows the end of America.

Says a lot about the Obamas, I guess. People might not be that far off the mark when they say they hate America...

I mean, the tweet above said they gave lots of notes. Maybe they just helped translate "death to America", maybe more

I was ready for a clever explanation for everything, but the show just stopped.

Waste of time.

Well there's 2 hours of my life I'll never get back. That was awful. Just really dumb writing and that "cinematography". Don't waste time on this one.

Informative thread. I'll leave this one off the list.

I didn't think it was horrible, just thought it was about 90 minutes too long. Condense it down to 45 minutes and make it episode 1 of a series and I would be intrigued.

Hmm, not sure how I feel about Obama's hand in this. There has been a lot of chatter about a high number of ceo's abruptly leaving their jobs and moving to places away from urban areas. Maybe he is trying to tell us something.

I didn't mind it. Not winning any awards, but I don't feel cheated.

ETA: It was over the top in places (violin riffs and long stare pan outs) and a little too "on the nose" in others (dependency on tech consumption).

Some really stupid stuff in this film that squandered an interesting premise & good cast.

As others mentioned, the unexplained cabin, the flamingos, lack of people, the suddenly p*ssed off deer... just stupid. The ending just left me pissed off.

If you want post-apocalyptic done better, stick with the first few seasons of The Walking Dead or The Last of Us. This is "Bird Box" level type stuff.

javajaws said:

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I didn't think it was half bad. But the ending just didn't do it for me. Kind of felt like they left the last third of the movie on the cutting room floor. Not that they actually cut film anymore. And apparently they don't use a test audience anymore either.

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It did have a sudden ending but clearly left everyone with the reality that nothing was going to stop the destruction of the US by internal civil war, so the only option was to bunker in and survive.