I finally saw this abomination of a TV pilot/movie. I wish I hadn't. 'To Your Scattered Bodies Go' is a novel by Phillip Jose Farmer which won the Hugo Award for best SF novel in 1972. This 'Riverworld' adaptation is a farce and does not do this incredible imaginative book any justice. This is a film that should be remade with all the attention to detail and robustness to how our Earth's history and possible future could be entangled into what I call the world's greatest Anthropological SF experiment of all time. Someone out there in Hollywood-land with some real script writing abilities should read all the books in the series and perhaps write a script that would do it justice. It has the makings of a blockbuster if the right individuals are involved. Anyway read all the books in the series and you will see what I mean. - Cheers

It could mean that I'm a bad person, but I enjoyed this movie.It probably helped a lot that I didn't read the books when viewing it. Without prior expectations from reading the book this is a good adventure story with a very interesting premise, good plot-turns and the usual weaknesses: the mandatory love-story (if you can call it that) is off-the-peg, and the hero is so bland and all-American that the only explanation is a file marked "all-purpose hero" which US film-makers get first day in their "shouting at actors 101" course. (But hey, if it works for 300 million movies, why not use it for another one.)And of course a couple of logic-holes, but all of that is too common for made-for-TV fantasy movies to really complain about it.But the supporting casts is, in my opinion, a joy: I love Sam, and the alien, and of course the main baddie. In the case of the baddie because I'm just a sucker for athletic evil bad guys making moves on the damsel in distress, extra bonus if the villain knows how to handle a sword.Sam, because he is everything an interesting hero should be: you get to learn his whole story only after a while, and he has the doubts and weaknesses and moments of indecisiveness that the first-billed character lacks. And the female lead is pretty good, too.Compared to the books or to recent LotR-movies this certainly is disappointing. Viewed as a made-for-TV movie, it's entertaining, uses original ideas and is clearly above the average. Pity the series was never made/aired.**For those who read the book before:** The movie doesn't follow the books, and for good reasons. The books were award-winning, not bestselling because they were too realistic, too thought-provoking. Too many things in them would blow the chances of a TV series pilot to smithereens. Using some dead European guy most US-Americans never heard of as a protagonist wasn't half of the problem, but keep in mind how irreligious and pragmatic he was (remember his idea on how to get strips for binding material? See what I mean?) and the occurrence of drugs, sex and violence and it should be clear that changes had to be made. I prefer whole-hearted changes that create new heroes and situations to half-hearted ones which leave a shell of the book-character.As it is, the movie isn't retelling the book, it's just loosely based on it. It uses the settings and some plot ideas of the book, but with changes to make sure that main stream audiences won't be put off. If that's acceptable to you, this might be an interesting movie for you.

I think this is a very good movie, it has the suspense of wondering what is going to happen to the misfit crew of the steamboat, action aplenty with gladiatorial combat, sword fights and explosions, sci-fi themes with alien overlords and one friendly extra-terrestrial, and a blossoming romance between Hale and Alice. Not to mention the dozens of naked people running around at the first of the movie. And the movie ends with so much more to explain and explore. I think that the producer(s) should seriously consider turning this movie into a TV series, I would definitely watch it and I bet so would others. Maybe Space-The Imagination Station in Canada would be interested in broadcasting the series.

I finally came to a startling conclusion. I think I'm a fan of would be epics that are made for Television. There is something imaginative and fun about these films that have to work with smaller budgets and might not feature state of the art effects or big movie actors. Riverworld was a whole new concept to me, I have not read the books nor had I ever heard of it before. I kept looking at it in the video aisle and thinking about seeing it.Riverworld is the story of a dimension, planet, other worldly place of some sort where those who die are resurrected under water onto a lush, beautiful landscape with many others who have died. There are higher powers at work but they perform mysteriously from the outside without revealing themselves. They release the people from under water cocoons when they are "reborn." The planet is inhabited seemingly by those only resurrected but some have been there longer than others giving them time to try and dominate everyone else. Jeff Hale who died while doing a tour of space for Nasa finds himself trying to bring together the other people who are resurrected at the same time he is including none other than Emperor Nero. They are quickly captured and forced to slavery by the current ruler of Riverworld Valdemar. Hale escapes with the help of a mysterious being and by the time he rescues everyone else Emperor Nero has overtaken Valdemar and created his own empire in the hopes of rebuilding Rome on Riverworld. Hale leads the others with the help of a mysterious Alien being who also died and was resurrected on the planet, to another group of people led by Sam who are building a riverboat in order to explore the world more. When Nero attacks them Hale and others must fight him off in order to escape and find out what lies beyond in Riverworld.Although short the movie is well directed and beautifully shot and uses some very nice special effects even if they are low budget. Brad Johnson who I love as Rayford Steele in the Left Behind films does a really great job. He's a terrific, very under rated actor who looks the part of a big star. He commands the screen and is a great leader. Jonathan Cake as Nero is equally as great. He appears to be someone who should be in an Epic about Rome and instead is dropped into Riverworld which is perfect for this part. This film definitely cries out for sequel or series and mostly this was made as an introduction so I hope they don't stop it here, otherwise this film is really pointless on it's own but it's a great introduction. Fortunately the film is short enough that it never has to hold your attention for very long. The gore is minimal and never shows any serious violence despite the sword play. The main focus is on Johnson's character and he holds his own quite well. I am definitely looking forward to sequels. Check this out for something low budget and a good time.7/10