The Gateway (2018) User Reviews

Alpha Gateway? Or... The GateWay?

[wandernn1-81-683274 · 6/10 · 19 January 2021]

So Scientists Open a portal to a parallel dimension, and science woman brings her formerly dead ex hubbie home to her world, where he finds out he has kids that he never had in his own world. And he also seems to be quite the weirdo.

Okay, low budget, obviously, but really the story was somewhat interesting. I got to give them some credit. Opening the Star Trek / Twilight Zone Pandora's Box paradigm of alternate dimensions is quite an undertaking and they did pretty well here. And I liked the ending.... 6/10

Had it's moments

[markphilo · 6/10 · 19 February 2018]

Like time travel / dimensions jumps story lines? Well this is worth a watch.

For a little Aussie movie this is a pleasant Sunday afternoon watch.

Story line is compelling enough as it gets you thinking about what they are doing and berating the characters for some of their decisions.

Not bad acting throughout.

Don't know if the writers have EVER been to development lab, but my God (!) what kind of security do they have on site!!

Dunno if the final scene twist was necessary, but that's for viewers to decide.

Which World Is Mine?

[schreff · 6/10 · 9 June 2019]

I'm writing to you from my own parallel world. Don't try to come here b/c once you leave your own world you can never return. It's just endless jumps from one world to the next & never back to the one b/4.

Once you put aside the complete scientific impossibility, you're in for quite an adventure. Yin-Yang, push & push back, everything has consequences or cause & affect. As a scientist, Jane's choice is quite irrational, but it makes for good story telling. Suspenseful & thrilling.

So what's your current situation? Are you in a dark place, desperate enough to make an irrational decision like Jane? What would you do?

A sci-fi movie with the budget of a high school play...and it shows.

[luyckxb · 4/10 · 15 February 2018]

Straight up, I don't like it when actors playing roles of scientists come across with zero credibility. This is especially embarrassing when the topic of a movie is about something so inherently on the edge of disbelief, namely travelling back and forth between parallel universes.

My coffee machine looks more up to the task of sending someone through holes in space than the trophy cabinets they had going. Also, the scientific vocabulary probably came straight from a powerpoint explaining space travel to a bunch of centenarians in a retirement home. Anyone else could instantly tell their just stretching dialog with random BS.

As with all non US movies (and I'm a non US resident too), these movies get initial scores that are just ridiculously high. So people, stop giving 8/10 scores to movies just because you recognize a bridge, or a neighbourhood or your ant's son in law, his best friends' mom worked in the catering of this production.

If you love sci-fi and your time is valuable then be warned, don't watch this!

Enjoyable Sci-Fi

[CarolinaNorth · 7/10 · 15 March 2018]

I'm an old man who has loved Sci-Fi since a small child. You should have seen what we had back in the day. This is a very enjoyable film for its production budget. I thought the ending left an opening for a sequel or two, or even a miniseries. Hope they get some budget backing to make it happen.

Pretty good!

[rsvp321 · 15 February 2018]

I always enjoy alt universe themes.

If you like this one, or don't but also like the alt univ, there's a new series, "Counterpart", to continue with, and another underrated mini series, "The Lost Room" (2006, currently 8.3 stars here at IMDb).

Another pretty good movie in the same genre, "Parallels", (2015, underrated at 6.2 here at IMDb by critics that can't grasp sci fi)

Wasted potential

[mikesnppr · 3/10 · 16 February 2018]

Interesting premise, but the execution fails. They wasted too much time on pointless interactions between characters and not enough time on the actual scifi aspect. We see very little from the alternate dimensions, when the character actually ventures there, nothing really interesting happens, before she pops back. It's an alternate dimensions gimmick, they could get away with anything and they decided to pick kind of cliché and not very interesting direction of the plot to go in. It made the whole dimensional plot device feel flat with wasted potential. I understand that this is an indie movie and their budget was zero to none, but still, even with that they could spin the dimensional narrative in more interesting ways. Then there are some plotholes too, where the movie breaks its own made up rules. And there is also the quite silly and pointless twist right at the end. What exactly was the purpose of that? It was a huge cliffhanger that made this movie look like an episode from a tv show, except there will be no sequel, so the cliffhanger felt very annoying, pointless and pulled out of thin air.

enjoyable ,very watchable and interesting

[tonymac-54085 · 7/10 · 3 April 2018]

This was great for a low budget movie , it never had a dull moment , was interesting throughout and the film flew by which is always a good sign ,,i loved the main lady character you could really connect with her and in all a very enjoyable and thought provoking movie , ignore the reviews picking holes in this movie i think they must be living in a parallel universe watching a different movie to knock this entertaining film ,

30 minutes then yawns

[tin-B · 4/10 · 14 September 2018]

I'll get right to the point.

What begins as a great sci fi mystery thriller story quickly falls apart because not a single character is curious about the other world. If you entered, visited or brought back something, someone, from a parallel world, wouldn't you be curious about that world? No one, the wife, or either of the kids, cares one bit about the world this man came from. No questions, no stores, they simply aren't the least bit curious. The plot simply follows a predictable story line without any transition. Almost immediately you know how it's going to go and that's that. The first 30 minutes are good, the rest of it is just a repeated scene of the same thing happening simply with higher levels of ramifications. Yawn.

Solid 7, Acting wasn't the greatest but....

[walleye-42537 · 7/10 · 16 February 2018]

This had a great story and plot line. There is more that could easily be explored with this plot line. As far as low budget Sci-Fi goes, this was one of the better ones. The acting could have been a bit better, but it really wasn't that bad. I have seen much worse from far more movies. Worth the time to watch it.

Why Do I trust reviewers on here?

[azureceo · 2/10 · 15 February 2018]

This is a B movie in the worst way. First it comes off way too "drama" and slow for a decent sci-fi Another reviewer is right about the score ..... really bad. I just wasted and hour and 30 minutes of my life that I can't get back.

Very Watchable

[payasoingenioso · 8/10 · 5 May 2021]

The rating is too low for this movie.

It is a well made drama with science fiction elements.

The acting is great. The plot is solid. And the cinematography is professional.

It is a solid 7, but I give it an 8 because bitter reviewers happen.

Small movie with a couple of very good ideas

[abisio · 7/10 · 21 February 2018]

The Gateway is the kind of movie that gets a lot milleage with very little budget, few actors and a couple of interesting ideas very well used. It is far from perfect but the situations becomes interesting after the first 15 minutes and albeit predictable still hold it until the very end. There are a few things that could look forced and some special effects cheap (perhaps somewhat campy), but fulfill the needs of the movie.

Acting is just acceptable but being the main character a middle age woman gives some coherence to absurd decisions.

In brief; not Oscar worthy but a good example of how much you can do with far less than any standard Hollywood pic

a C grade movie with poor acting

[mkbbd · 2/10 · 17 February 2018]

This movie is not even close to the movie "Parallels" and poor acting, poor quality scripting, low cost production made it unwatchable. Even the lead actress is so stupid pretending all the time to be a cool young scientist. I am telling this to the lead actress - If you are old try to act old and maturely, don't just pretend to be young as chick flick because you are not. Such a shame Australians made this type of B grade movies where as "John Doe Vigilante", "Girl from Tomorrow" and "Mystery Road" etc were great to watch with good script and quality acting

Oh dear :(

[Clipster12 · 2/10 · 11 April 2018]

Trust me, don't bother. A generic attempt if ever there was one.

Better than expected

[rosanna-83335 · 7/10 · 7 January 2022]

Based on quite low rating wasn't expecting it to be very good but actually was quite good. A team of scientists discover the means to travel to parallel universes. The death of the female protagonist pushes her to attempt the journey for herself. She finds her husband who tells her that in his world she is the one that died. She takes him back to her world but things don't turn out the way she hopes.

Really bad

[stefan-neotokyo · 1/10 · 16 February 2018]

I have no idea how can this movie get so many good scores. Its really bad.

An OK amateur indie Aussie production

[Top_Dawg_Critic · 7/10 · 15 February 2018]

This one is a hard one to rate/review. I could nit-pick it, but after all, it is a independent low budget C-grade Aussie production by amateur/novice director/writer/producer John V. Soto, and thus I can't compare it (or rate it as an equal) to a big budget Hollywood production.

Having said that, what stood out foremost and was annoying was the score, just terrible. Had it been better, the film would have shown better. The sound was also off (should have had the boom mics closer to the actors) - sometimes the score overpowered the dialogue.

The screenplay was ok aside from major plot holes (especially the ending that I guess was supposed to thrill the audience, but failed as a ridiculous amateur move) and a very slow pace. This film needed to be edited down from 90 mins to 75 mins tops. Some of the slow-mo scenes were overly dramatic without cause, and other normal scenes dragged out and extended too long and needed to be edited down.

Although the actors were C & B-list actors, I felt even the experienced ones failed to produce, and I feel part of that blame falls on the director's failure to instruct his actors properly. It seemed this was the kid actors first ever acting gig.

But on the positive side, John V. Soto's directing, cinematography and the story/premise were decent and enjoyable.

A very generous and honest (look at the other 3 fake hi score reviews who only rated this film lol) 7/10 from me. Would I see it again or recommend it? Nope. Did I enjoy it? Sure, because I had no other movies to watch.

Horrendous

[vanpegg · 2/10 · 17 October 2018]

The plot-holes are super-massive enough to distort time and space.

if you love scifi thriller, you gonna love it

[issachar · 7/10 · 16 February 2018]

There's always ethic problems questioned when mentioning time travel and stuffs, "The Gateway" is about parallel universe, which is kind of "new" perspective. It surely not a Class A movie production, I do not like the casting much neither. However I enjoy it very much with how the story develop although its little bit slow, the plot is really nice and how they twist it that build up the intensity, they are doing it very good.

the worst movie i've seen in a looooooooooong time...

[kingnasa · 1/10 · 19 February 2018]

This is by far the worst movie i have ever come across., and i normally get through a lot of cheesy stuff, the only thing good about it was that upon seeing its rating its the first time (after years and years) i've actually logged in to review a movie.

i didn't even mind the whole cheesy sci fi side of it that much, ridiculous plot or average acting but the two kids (if you could even call them that).... what can i say to describe them apart from they singlehandedly made me not even try to get through the whole thing....

most painfull half movie of my life and unbelievable how it has a better rating than Jackie Chan's new sci fi!!!!!!

(and i can confidently say that before even watching it lol)

I liked it

[niftynevo · 10/10 · 8 December 2021]

Sure, it's low budget, but i watch it out and that's saying something. The cast was good, and the premise was feasible. Better than some of the big budget rubbish we are spoon fed theses days.

Good Sci-Fi

[ahmd-said · 7/10 · 25 February 2018]

This movie has a great Sci-Fi, I liked how the movie used the parallel world theory, they handled it very cleverly. Acting is good only the downside i think is the plot holes, like how the lab assistant built a home lab while they were building the lab for years.

No story, no content, poor direction

[nvdhingra · 1/10 · 18 February 2018]

The movie is a waste of time. It is not a science fiction at all. It is just a low key drama movie with a fancy name. I dont know the director or the writer does know anything about science at all. In their view, a scientist is a nerd with beard who do not changes his clothes. Two ovens connected to two computer screens and they are performing teleportation to parallel universes. BS

WOW! THEY RENAMED THIS CRAPPY MOVIE!

[chi_town_fed · 4/10 · 13 August 2018]

This was originally named "The Gateway." They have relaunched this crap-film under the name "Alpha Gateway." What a crock.

People who are not avid Sci-Fi enthusiasts may rate this film higher than I did. The plot-holes in this film are beyond massive. The scientists are anything but as the so-called "trials" consisted of an apple, a camera, then a human being. Moreover, the "frequency" issue was a joke.

They sent an apple through the sending pod that did not materialize in their receiving pod. When the apple did not materialize in their receiving pod they suddenly concluded, in a very non-scientific way, it went to a parallel universe (what a leap). Then they concluded the apple did not come back because the beings in the parallel universe must be on a different frequency. Question, if their equipment is on a different frequency, how did they receive the apple? EXAMPLE: If I broadcast a radio signal and your receiver is tuned to a different frequency (as claimed in this film), how will you hear me? How can I send you instructions to change frequencies in order to hear me, if you can't hear me in the first place? The phony solution used in this movie was to write the correct frequency on a paper and send it through. Again, if the other "beings'" equipment is on a different frequency, how did they receive the note OR the apple? Sending the note to change the frequency apparently solved the problem as the apple was then sent back.

Next they sent a video camera through. The parallel universe scientist was on the recording that came back. After seeing the camera and apple come through, the scientist decides to send herself through. I imagine her thoughts were "Hey. The apple and the camera worked. So why not a human? We don't need no stinking guinea pigs." Then, without hesitation nor reservation, she brings the alternate husband back to this universe because hers recently died. The duplicate husband turns out to be a homicidal maniac. Of course no one must know this is a duplicate husband.

The assistant builds another teleporter in his basement, which are basically a bunch of wires dangling inside a cardboard box. Somehow his house circuit breakers and power lines are designed to provide 300 "Petawatts" of power without blowing a fuse.

There is so much more wrong with this film it is too much to write. It is possible they may have been trying to make a Dr. Who-esque film. If so their failure is epic. If not, they simply made a horrible film.