The characters of Final Days of Planet Earth are not particularly deep but the actors are likeable and the long-form format allows us time to warm up to them. If the assembled Sci-Fi motifs hadn't been in constant replay mode for the past 50 years, we'd be kinder toward their reappearance in this handsomely produced three-hour miniseries. Genre fans will feel right at home in the teaser opening, set on a space probe interrupted by odd Quatermass Xperiment- like phenomena. By the time people are being sucked underground and grottoes of suspicious growths are discovered, it would seem time to call in the Marines. But the telephone system has already been taken over, along with the cops. Our heroes take a refreshingly non-paranoid attitude, considering enough conspiracy clues are present to put Oliver Stone off his feed.

Yes, City Hall has been infiltrated by aliens wearing human costumes, shed-skin disguises they can doff whenever it's time to strike with an insectoid appendage. The invaders are a definite Queen Bee society, with a number of bureaucratic drones that argue among themselves (shades of Buckaroo Banzai, without the laughs) but shake in their exoskeletons when upbraided by their mean-mother female leader. Naturally, the intrepid group of neighborhood commandoes can avoid capture by hanging out in a homeless shelter (They Live ...?) They learn some of the secrets of the invaders by walking right into City Hall and snooping through doorways!

The cover art gives away the big secret with Ms. Hannah, who this time around is not a loveable mermaid. For the first-half cliffhanger her insectoid self is revealed in a glass reflection, an image similar to that of I Married A Monster from Outer Space when the aliens momentarily let their guards down.

The production is not bad, and the city setting is convincing, if small-scale. Although not exactly the pinnacle of tension, the miniseries manages some good moments before it devolves into gunfights and chases. The best scene occurs when several dissenters, petitioners and other nosy individuals meet in Room 86, the kind of dingy waiting room dreaded by all. An officious clerk refuses to give out information and insists that the people wait to pass through an inner door one by one. The setup is the Department of Motor Vehicles answer to the 'Facility Tour' scene in Quatermass 2 ... stop asking questions and follow instructions. Lloyd Walker notices that the corridor behind Room 86 is an awful lot like the famous Roach Motel: Guests check in, but nobody checks out.

The final half of the second show becomes a regular monster rally, with insects killing insects, luckless victims fed Puppet Master-like larvae and battles in a disgusting abattoir. The final CGI-laden confrontation with praying mantis monsters in the giant egg chamber is less exciting but is given okay computer animation effects. Before 1980 or so, the monsters would be a revelation. As it is, the CGI revolution has added a big ho-hum factor to this sort of thing when not in the service of a crackerjack story.

Darryl Hannah has some fun with her role as the nasty Den Mother from Hell, and the other actors, especially Suleka Mathew, are pleasant companions for an action miniseries. Final Days of Planet Earth is a reasonable thriller but is unlikely to stay rooted in the memory.

Platinum's DVD of Final Days of Planet Earth is an iffy enhanced transfer with generally good encoding. All 170 minutes of show and the extras are on one side of one disc, resulting in periodic bouts of a weaker imaging. Nevertheless, color and densities remain solid. The 5.1 mix is a plus as well.

The one extra is a roundabout selection of responses to the question Do You Believe in Aliens? as put to the cast, producer and director. None of the answers are in the least bit interesting, and the feature mainly allows us to see the cast members out of character.

On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, The Final Days of Planet Earth rates:
Movie: Good -
Video: Good -
Sound: Excellent
Supplements: Question featurette: Do You Believe in Aliens?
Packaging: Keep case
Reviewed: November 2, 2006