echapman7 Science fiction is about ideas. And if it's got a good idea I can easily forgive budget limitations. Earthrise has quite a good idea. Three people who have spent their lives on Mars are undertaking the long, mentally exhausting and psychologically stressful voyage back to earth, which they anticipate with the very same awe and excitement that we on earth currently have about Mars. For a low budget film it has professional lighting, sound and what I thought were cool, resourceful special effects. The acting by the three leads is generally solid and heartfelt. The movie does a good job of jumping around in time to show through revealing interviews how they were chosen for the trip in the first place and potential conflicts that might arise on their journey. The one area that is noticeably low budget and not always terribly convincing is set design. But the story always held my interest, the production has conviction and I found the climactic scene and its creative use of a single sound effect we often take for granted to be beautiful.

mdr1393503 Decent VFX, especially for the budget. Also, the acting was much better than I expected. Great premise, in that earth has now become the alien planet after humanity has relocated to Mars. If you're looking for a classic narrative arch, you might be disappointed. Agree with others, that it's a bit too open ended ... on both ends. Still, an interesting film.

fjstars This was not an easy genre of film to make with a lower budget but considering it was i was impressed. The sets and special effects were great and the filming was really top-notch! The acting was a little uneven mostly by the females in the cast but they had their moments too! The men i thought were really good and made the story very intriguing. I would definitely recommend it to others to watch but not to the hyper-critical people who would enjoy picking it apart. People don't realize what goes into making a film and they so easily tear it apart. If you can make a movie for under a million dollars that can hold someones attention for the entire time then you got a decent film!

Grimme While I had some qualms with the film regarding some of the acting and pacing, it's hard to fault an indie project as ambitious as this one. What it does, it does very well: the sets are well-done, the special effects pretty good for an independent film, and the editing is superb.The premise is solid, and leaves just enough room for building suspense over the course of the film, but it's the way the story is told -- through scenes cutting forward and backward in time, allowing the audience to put the pieces together themselves -- that held my attention. They did a good job on the continuity between all those scenes, too.Overall, I enjoyed it!