A cut price Australian made combo of Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Knowing, Terminus aims to tell a big ambitious (derivative) story, but cuts way too many production corners getting there to make it all that interesting.

It's one of these annoyingly darkly -lit, washed-out colour films, shot with hand-held cameras and over-indulging itself with close-up camera angles and quick edits to the extent, that in the few scenes of action we are delivered, you are totally unsure of exactly what is going on.

The acting won't live in my memory either. Jai Koutrae in the ostensible central role of David was particularly wooden, though I thought his screen daughter Annabelle, played by Kendra Appleton, acquitted herself quite well.

It's always kind of fun watching Aussie films and actors pretend they are all things American. The accents are pretty good and the above mentioned close-ups I think are designed to avoid giving away too many visual clues as to actual filming locations. But in the very few external panoramas shown, it's quite easy to tell the sound and look of the Australian bush if you are half-way familiar with it.

By my reckoning at least 90% of the film is shot at night or in dim, murky surroundings. I felt like celebrating every (occasional) time we were gifted a scene filmed during the day. I guess this is director/co-writer Marc Furmie's idea of creating an atmosphere of foreboding bordering on paranoia. I personally found it a complete road block to enjoying an imitative, but aspiring, apocalyptic tale.