i must say, some ppl dont like this movie, some rate it
ave...maybe some rate it as good
storyline/concept:
i must say this movie has a very refreshing storyline to the
otherwise satuarated movie market of movies with similar storyline.
ghost movies all have the same theme and same way of scaring ppl,
like
all is silence, main actor slowly approaches
door/car/lake/bathtub/mirror/phone/etc and some moron with a bad
sorethroat says 'hi' and everyone screams. and its usually because
someone died eons ago.(all ghost thrillers)
or it's americans blazing their way into country x and saving 1 of
theirs while killing thousands.(behind enemy lines)
it's diff frm other disaster movies or movies where 1 or grp of ppl
are stranded in a certain place for sometime before someone saves
them or they escape,etc. like the movie of this cargo plane
crashing into a deserted island (tom hanks) and someone saves him.
finally there's a movie abt the characters building themselves
something to get them out of the place. interesting.
cast
really B list. so go reckon abt their acting skills.
their acting seems abit ..i dunno what u call it, dry or forced.
anyway they just lack the punch.
even though it was probably scripted to have a rag-tag oil rig
crew, it's now the usual bunch of zeros you would expect to see in
a movie. it's just different.
the movie itself
it seems accelerated and inconsistent in terms of flow. suddely
there's a makeshift plane after a few days of welding (like 3
days?)
throughout the movie, it's obvious that the director or producer
made good attempts to present it better by shooting frm brilliant
angles such as showing a wide angle view that included the plane
and a man standing on a distant tall sand dune,etc ( u'll have to
watch it to get waht i mean)
there's another scene where they show this guy being half-buried in
the sand and being baked dry, that scene was rather nice;y crafted.
seems to take cues frm "the day after tomorrow"
there's 1 scene they 1 hot-headed guy tries to walk for help and
another guy projects to him waht he's gonna expect if he really
did
like the using a compass to navigate and the area is surrounded
with magnetic mountains and the compass will spin, etc
the animation/special effects are really cool there..
Warning: spoilers below!!!!
there are some scenes where i have no idea what to make of
it,
either u call the producer ingenious/creative or just plain lame.
depends on u
eg1. they discover their so called engineer is a designer for model
aeroplanes
eg2. the same guy made everyone beg him to work after a
scuffle.
eg3. the chef even had the mood to create a menu from a piece of
metal plate.
eg4. they even sang "hey ya" by outkast while at it ?
eg5. those nomads/whatever speak cantonese ? (ok fine, it's gobi
desert and some chinese do speak cantonese)
eg6. those nomads dont seem tanned at all ??
personal rating. 6.5/10
3.5 comes frm novel storyline
the rest comes frm the cast,etc
watch it if have the time, otherwise just by reading the synopsis,
u just got the storyline.
anyway it's interesting to see a black looking rather red after
working in the sun for so long... 
