dane-92 Are they just random asteroids? Or are they something more? It's a 1990s twist on War of the Worlds, this time, reported through the lens of the TV camera. As the story unfolds, we come to realize these asteroids are more than just hunks of rock. 20 years later, it's surprising how well Without Warning holds up. The acting, and enacting, are convincing enough to lock you into the story, and the presentation is done so much like real network newscasting that you occasionally have to pinch yourself and remind yourself this isn't actual event coverage. The story itself has plenty of plot twists and unexpected developments that keep things interesting. It was definitely entertaining, exciting, and pretty convincing as a docudrama, and I can see how somebody tuning in midway through could have been fooled by it for awhile. The movie's a good diversion for anybody who enjoys speculative fiction.There, I'll stop, and allow those who haven't seen it yet to look away. Spoilers and a bit of nitpicking ahead:The story unfolds interestingly, but there are places in this movie where I'm unclear where they're going... and I'm not so sure they are either. There are many clear references to Biblical prophesy, including speaking in tongues, Armageddon, and, clearly (in the scene where the entire inhabitants of "Faith, Wyoming" disappear off the face of the earth), "the rapture". But in this case, it's not God, but unseen aliens, who are performing the miracles. What are they suggesting? That God is going to fulfill Biblical prophesy by sending aliens to earth...in the form of asteroids? Another puzzling assertion, first suggested by a scientist who broke away from NASA to speak the truth of the situation to reporters, and reinforced by Sander V in the final words of the movie, is that the aliens were ticked with the earthlings, and we brought destruction upon ourselves. Why? Because, after the aliens said "howdy" by dropping three big asteroid fragments on us, the military stepped in and blew up the next one before it could impact the north pole. The aliens' next move was to counter-attack against our three most-powerful cities, and when that failed, to obliterate the entire planet. That's like throwing a rock through somebody's window, and when the residents board up the window, blowing up their house. Cummon! :-)

dl43 Screen and theater acting techniques may bode well toward establishing a sense of drama within a realm where clearcut emotions, facial expressions, and unnaturally fluent speech patterns may enhanced form of medium clearly intended toward entertainment value, but in terms of attempting to emulate real-life behaviors, these methodologies almost always fall flat.Thus, therein lies the essence of the problems with this movie, notwithstanding the problems with its storyline, in that the melodramatic clichés, overemotional expressions, unbroken sentence structures and laughable bits of overacting send this movie's pretensions toward realism crashing to the ground with greater impact than the "asteroids" that serve as its subject matter.Notice how the news anchors maintain persistent eye contact with the camera, never glancing downward to look at their notes, as they are clearly reciting lines from a perfectly memorized and persistently rehearsed script. Seeking the all too recognizable imperfections of everyday conversation, such as "um"s, "yknow"s, apprehensive pauses or even so much as a broken sentence? You won't find it here, as "Without Warning"s depiction of "real life" clearly emits within an alternate universe where every bit of every day conversation is uttered with stringent adherence to grammatical correctness, exaggerated fluctuations in tone clearly designed to emphasize the character's ever present mental status and overzealous emotional expressions, lest the content of one's speech fail to properly clarify one's state of mind for the intellectually impaired.One will also notice on-site news broadcasts lacking the characteristic confinement of audio cues emitting solely from a microphone, as the camera's seem to pick up background noises and surrounding ambiance with unbelievable clarity.Minus the expressions, the behaviors of each and everyone involve serve as further reminders to the audience that they are in fact watching a movie. When spotting a girl who appears to have mysteriously been deposited at the center of a meteor impact site, the anchorwoman proceeds to "check on her" by immediately shoving the microphone in her face to record an odd verbal pattern which ultimately serves as one of the movie's preposterous "twists". No examining her. No inquiring as to whether she's okay. No muttering impressions that the child obviously appears to be in shock. Simply setting the immediate stage for a metaphorical "speech" that was clearly all too staged from the get go. At one point, an air force general holds a press conference with which to inform the public as to a series of facts which have already been established by prior broadcasts, then at the first sign of queries, holds an all too obviously "stunned" expression for several seconds, before declaring "no more questions", a gesture that practically screams out, "Yes, I'm definitely hiding something". A) Nice overacting, and B), why hold a press conference if you're essentially not going to say anything that people didn't know already? One of the most laughable bits that boasts further credentials as to the movie's propensity for melodramatics and lack of logic depicts one of the news anchors on site of the impending impact zone of another "asteroid" amidst the military's plan to demolish it before impact. As the screen brightens, he proceeds to stumble around in the midst of an hysterical panic, questioning his colleague at the news room "WHY AREN'T THEY SHOOTING AT IT???!!!!" A) A one-way ticket to the Royal Hospital For Overracting for you, sir! (consult Monty Python's Ypres sketch for more information) and B) You're colleague is a news anchor; how the F would he know? Clearly, one would need a twenty-series encyclopedia just to document every instance in which the movie's execution registers anything but the documentary-like impression that the filmmakers were striving for, but the storyline contains enough problems as it is.One scientist's perfect deductions concludes that the first two "asteroids" were deliberately deposited in sparsely populated zones in preparation for guiding the third "vehicle" to its destination, the latter of which was destroyed by what he considers our "overzealous" use of an anti-satellite missile. If these aliens needed "beacons" to land their welcome wagon, how did they manage to land the preceding probes with such precision?The scientist proceeds to berate our "aggressive" behavior as having "declared war" on an alien species, and thus the remainder of the film proceeds to further "document" their revenge. So, this intellectually superior race of extraterrestrials tossed two over-sized rocks at our planet, killed quite a number of people, yet couldn't even contemplate how a civilization on the receiving end might perceive these gestures as a threat? Kudos to the movie for conceptualizing by far the dumbest technologically advanced race ever to permeate the universe.Other illogical fallacies include the military's decision to transport the scientist in question (from within the country I might add) via F-16 (in order to naturally speed up the ETA). Clearly, given the distance traversed, the use of a fighter jet wouldn't make much of a decisive difference to merit this gesture, while the movie's ostensible implications that the jet would be cruising to its destination at top speed downplays the lack of fuel efficiency accorded the process of proceeding anywhere for considerable lengths on full afterburner.With its overpopulation of plot holes, clichés, and innumerable little cues in the field of acting that completely foil any impressions to the public that what they're seeing is "real", this pretentious attempt to cash in the mock-documentary genre couldn't have been executed more poorly if the filmmaker's had planned it that way.

onthefloorthere If not anything else, "Without Warning" proves that a film can be memorable and highly original without being brilliant. This is by no means a masterpiece, but it fully serves its purpose and resembles a punch in the stomach when you least expect it. Didn't come up with high expectations (found it on YouTube), but the uncertainty building up throughout the film kept me watching. The ending caught me completely off guard. What makes this film so disturbing is that the story unwraps slowly, without being too explicit or over the top. By far one of the most plausible and haunting pieces apocalyptic fiction I've ever seen.

jelorduy I just saw Without a Warning on TNT Latin America, and to tell you the truth at first I thought it was good, THEN, when the going went tough all the Sci-Fi cliches went online. I agree with the comment here that says that why are we suppose to be the bad guys just because we are trying to defend our own turf.Look: Someone is dropping BIG rocks on our backyard... come on, is that equal to intelligent extraterrestrial life??? I mean, that is a whale of a way to establish first contact with a new form of life.But to tell you the truth I just loved the doctor that went way over the top screaming that we just declared war on an alien race: "we are the most violent race in the galaxy"... Really? Could you tell me his sources.If this were really, really a vastly advance race trying to reach us, after the aborted first contact, what would be a logical course of action? Leave Earth alone, blockade the Solar System, wait a 100 years and lets see if the children on Earth stop playing with fire... hope they grow up after a century... mean while, lets move to the next system.