User reviews

In a word? Boring. Monoliths inexplicably turn up all over the world with inexplicable consequences. That's it really. No one seems to know what's going on. Not the characters. Not the actors. Not the director and certainly not the writers. A genre so bent that NOTHING makes sense and it's all a complete waste of your time.

I watched it for free on Crackle and I still think I'm due a refund.

This is really bad. No redeeming qualities about this movie.

The only reason for watching this film could be family or friends involvement in the cast. Perhaps your granddaughter or a neighbour or a second cousin is in the cast here. It works as a hobby project but I feel like it's a waste.

Poor acting, poor narrative, poor effects and most importantly a wasted potential.

If you enjoy gore and "eye popping" bloody stuff which gives no meaning - search no more.

I am very sorry for the actors who tried to do a decent job, but this is not something you put in portfolio.

I've watched hundreds of bad movies. Finally, after 37 years of life, I have watched a movie so absolutely horrible that I felt the need to create an IMDB account to review one.

I hope that others like me, those who can happily sit through a bad movie and appreciate it for it's most basic entertainment value, see this review and know to stay away. Don't say you weren't warned.

... Make spooky nonsense happen. Is it aliens? Is it hell? Is there a coherent story? We just don't know. And sometimes heads explode. Overall, it's just kinda dull.

This is not how a movie works, there is has to be an ending, a conclusion of the story not just putting some random cinema. and what is all about the gore ? it's absolutely not on point for this kind of genre, i tough this is sci-fi it is not !! don't waste you're time for this movie. this is just a garbage.

The concept had potential but the implementation failed miserably. It was told as a series of stories which led to a disjointed and confusing anticlimactic end. I doubt the writers had much more than a 5th grade education and certainly never had a class in writing drama. And, who read this script and thought,"Yes, that sounds good!"? Just wow! The actors were OK, the cinematography was decent, even the background music was passable. But the story just didn't have enough legs to go anywhere. It was obvious the writers had no real concept at all and so the individual stories never became cohesive. The whole thing kind of came off as an indy-art-house picture with no real substance. Don't waste your time.

I didn't think it was possible for 'Portals' to be as bad as the reviews but it's even worse!

A complete mess of a film. A sure time waster. I saw this only cos of the director Timo Tjahjanto. His other films r solid horror/thrillers n i am shocked why he agreed to direct a seg. Even his seg is badly shot with the annoying flickering lights n shaky cam. Generous with a 2 for one head blasting scene.

I gave this movie a chance after reading the negative reviews... big mistake that was. This movie was a total bore, confusing, and had terrible acting. Avoid this movie!

Portals lacks direction and flails about for much of its run time until it falls over and ends.

The initial plotline has some tantalizing potential but average acting from the movies no name actors and confused directing makes the portals an exercise in wasted time.

It could have been an amazing move but never got there.

Knowing the background for how this movie got made gives it a few passes in the mistakes and writing department for me. First of all, this isn't some A-list mainstream media movie, it's a small distribution and could (and should) be treated as a B-movie horror flick. Considering the segments were finished at different times and then sewn together once another writer was brought in, there ARE a few bumpy parts and editing slips that kinda made me go "oh, whoops" but I wasn't there to judge a movie as some Avengers film anyway.

Overall I enjoyed it, and that's probably because I went in knowing what to MOSTLY expect from the writers and directors involved and what they have made in the past. Each little segment has its own feel to it and, again, while not being perfect in editing or acting, still had something to offer. It definitely had potential to be something bigger or greater but for what came out of it as a final project is still a fun little watch in my opinion.

I'll give this movie a shot.. and still it's entertaining,. Great concept. Mediocre CGI Camera angle is good But the pace is so slow.. And the script is not good.. I give this rating to encourage the whole team involved in the production of the movie so they can get better making movies...

Some intriguing ideas, decent acting, fairly well made (way too much shaky camera).

Unfortunately the film as a whole fails to deliver anything. No emotional satisfaction, no closure, structure or story...

I feel like I have watched a string of trailers for what could be interesting films, but that's it? A bit like the promo's before the main feature, but there is no main feature?

With a proper storyline and decent script, the ideas put forward could make a very good film or TV series.

The whole is so much less than the parts.

AVOID AT ALL COSTS. Id rather sit in a hospital waiting room than waste my life watching this again. Only created account to review and say how god aweful this is

I tried my best to get to the end of this confusing film but I had to give up my brain wasn't having it. It's that bad.....don't waste your time.

The acting was mostly pretty good--the child of the couple did best, like she thought she was starring in a real movie, & the electronic space music was good. But the movie didn't deserve either. You would think with 4 directors, at least one segment would've been good. The part of or the whole script for each segment must've gotten lost before they finished reading it, & the directors thought the not-so-special effects would make-up for it, & their poor directing. Nothing went anywhere to explain what was happening, & that "Sarah" segment, the most annoying one, took forever to get to the end. I honestly believe the only requirements the directors had of the (adult) actors was: you must all use the f-word at least once, but fit it in as many times as you can to make up for our missing scripts.

Worst movie ever... i feel bad for the actors... dont waste your time.. even with some beers on!

I didn't know what I was getting myself into here when I sat down to watch the 2019 sci-fi movie "Portals". I hadn't even checked IMDb prior to watching it, which I might should have, and have had a heads up with the low rating the movie had received.

Regardless, I sat down to watch the movie, and it never really caught my attention. And I managed to endure 50 minutes of "Portals" before I tossed the towel in the ring and called it quits. And twice during those prolonged 50 minutes were I at the brink of giving up prematurely, but I endured until I simply couldn't take any more of the suffering.

A few things in the movie proved a little bit interesting, but the directors just failed utterly to make it worthwhile and interesting. And get this, four directors, yes you read that right, four directors worked on this, and still each and everyone failed completely.

The storyline is weak and rather pointless, and while the movie actually was adequately paced, there was just nothing of any interest happening throughout most of the 50 minutes I endured.

The acting in the movie was adequate, but also suffering from the script and storyline being so atrocious, which essentially resulted in the character gallery being mundane and flaccid.

I have zero interest in returning to watch the rest of "Portals", because it just failed utterly to interest me and didn't appeal to me on any level. As such, I am rating the movie three out of ten stars, based on the production value that they had in the movie. That at least counted for something, but it couldn't do anything to salvage the movie from sliding fast downhill.

Im as cross faded AF, but i loved every second. Seroiusly brilliant story development. Many cinimagraphic miment of pure brilliance. I so enjoy the ride. Thank you to the creators of this epic project.

Scientist create a black hole that quickly goes wrong causing a string of blackouts across the world..then creepy mysterious extraterrestrial (I think) Portal type monoliths appear everywhere around the world telepathically calling people to enter them. I found this to be such a interesting set up that has a ton of potential to go further if given a proper budget to really expand upon if there is ever a sequel - would work better as a series. By no means a perfect film, I had a few issues story wise but its also an anthology so took that into account. Over all this was a original watch with some pretty tense moments, decent performances, at times stunning cinematography, some pretty good gore and the Portals themselves are very creepy and well executed. Just wish it explored more of the mind-bending alternate reality stuff it promised but for a little horror sci fi it still worked just enough to recommend.

They sure know how to make effective trailers nowadays, they totally fooled me. Decent, noteworthy directors orchestrating a movie produced by my favorite horror medium & "Portals" was the result - I am indeed very disappointed.

I was deciding on what to watch with my sister, "Portals" had just came out, so I showed her the trailer & it's a nice trailer, nothing too impressive, but certainly intriguing. So started 80 minutes of a regressive horror entertainment. "Portals" take place during a series of world-wide blackouts, followed by mysterious cosmic anomalies popping up all over the globe & they scare some people and draw others in. Directors involved have previously gifted us a few good movies including "The Night Comes for Us", "Blair Witch Project" and the less than good "Beyond Skyline". To start positively, the qualities of "Portals" include some (not all) cool and creative production design / cinematography choices, dark sci-fi sound design and decent enough acting. Sadly, the script contains very little substance, moves at a snails pace and will very likely leave you dissatisfied or even irritated. Frankly, "Portals" doesn't make any sense and doesn't even compensate by being effectively ominous, eerie, open-ended or just the good kind of style-over-substance. It's hard to fish for the best in this movie, because nothing really excels, but the cake probably goes to Timo Tjahjanto for the segment of "Sarah" - stretched out and underwhelming, but better on the background of everything else.

"Portals" angered me which not a lot of movies manage to do, it would've been better already by just cutting off 20 minutes from the runtime. Hardcore sci-fi horror fans, cosmic horror fans, forgiving anthology fans - you can try to have a go at this but beware, it's extremely lacking of literally everything. My rating: 3/10.

I stumbled upon this film, hadn't seen any advertising (probably couldn't afford) and the premise and producers involved sparked interest.

It has lots of potential. The portals that appear after scientists create a man made black hole is interesting and the people disappearing is intriguing za well acted and the effects pretty good considering the budget restrictions. So they all did an incredible job with regards to this part of the film.

The story lacks any real substance after that really, several stories linked by the portals and that's where their ideas kinda fell flat. Some fun and surprisingly Nast gore bits were a bonus.

With a decent budget and better script this simple sci fi theme would of course be better. But for what it is they did a great job. Bad reviews seem to have expected some big studio production....hence why disappointed them. Satisfactory acting levels and FXz just a weak script with no real outcome of note.

Not brilliant.....but far from the supposed car crash that daft reviewers seem to think. Far far worse films being released by bigger studios.