Teleios (2017)

I started off engaged and interested in this movie, initially there was some good pacing and dissemination of information, but as it went along I lost a lot of interest. Part of the movie involves getting vital information from the survivor but I found I got as frustrated at the crew at how slow the plot progressed past the initial phase and tried to resist skipping forward to find out what information they try to beat out of the survivor.The costumes immediately reminded me of ST TNG like others have stated in reviews and the dart seams (thanks smoke0, didn't know what to call those) on the women were distracting, gave the appearance of women having fake 'pokies'. The costumes otherwise were very flattering to the actor's figures and Sunny Mabrey has never looked better than in one of these jumpsuits. She probably was the highlight of the movie for me. The movie also did a decent job with special effects and making the surroundings look good.Plot holes were the unraveling of the movie for me. From the very start you see the spaceship had a rotating outer part but the crew is in the middle but somehow they have gravity. Also, the space station had 2 rotating rings but they do not dock there and the movie takes place in the main body that is not rotating and again they have gravity somehow. I was like OK, whatever and moved on but then more things like that kept pecking away.I was really put off about how they deal with the survivor and the companion bot. Why would you leave them on the compromised station instead of taking them back to the ship???The biggest "hole" is allowing the modified bot to just roam around the station...that is just too great of a liability and never would happen , it would have to be deactivated or contained. They were attacked by some small bots from the very beginning, why wouldn't they fear the same or worse from the survivor's modified robot companion? very big hole that destroyed any coherence.I really wanted to like this movie more and wished there were some more hooks or breadcrumbs or even plot misdirects along the way to keep me engaged but it takes the whole movie to get any information at all about what happened and by then I just wasn't interested. I found I wanted to beat it out of whoever wrote the screenplay as much as the crew wanted to get it out of the survivor.

Mild Spoilers, nothing that will ruin the movie. This movie is re-named, just as several others that I've come across on Amazon Prime (search by director or actor name, then match the artwork, if you run into this). I am assuming this is to make some kind of connection to Star Trek (there is none, and despite numerous quotes, I didn't hear a single reference to anything about a trek, in the movie). The writer was going for a more thought provoking resolution, so I could see a comparison to Star Trek: The Original Series. I can forgive a lot, in terms of special effects (which were actually pretty good, for the most part) and acting (which was definitely less consistent, but I thought it was a reasonable effort to portray characters who aren't regular humans). My biggest issues were significant problems with the story that distracted from the big and interesting questions that it asked.Unfortunately, the story broke down in several places. If you listen carefully to the time frame for Teleios' rescue mission, transit time is quite long, requiring some sort of stasis pods. But, if you follow the timeline for the problems on the Atromitos and the return time given toward the end of the movie, the Teleios would have to have left almost a year before the Atromitos started harvesting its cargo, and more than two years before all hands were presumed dead. In addition, the issue that crops up for all of the Teleios crew members seems to have just become a problem on Earth, but the crew has been in stasis for three years (so either they have an additional three years before it should be an issue for them, or they shouldn't have a problem, since they had been in transit while the problem developed on Earth). There are odd things that happen with the artificial human, but not enough clues are given early in the story, so the additional information we get later just feels tacked on. Finally, the underlying reasons for the final 'choice' and resolution are not foreshadowed well and not explained at all, until after the fact. Also, one has to question how the person affected could become a member of a spaceship crew.There are also some serious technical errors, particularly at the beginning. The CGI suggests that the asteroid belt is made up of large, closely spaced rocks. In fact, planetary rings are made of many small particles that are far apart. Also, the Teleios' speed is given as 485 km per hour. This is far too slow for planetary orbit, and it's far too fast to be the speed relative to Atromitos. Later, the formulas given are very simple chemical compounds, which couldn't possibly represent the complex compounds that one would find in Titan's atmosphere and certainly not something that couldn't be easily synthesized on Earth (so why send an expedition and spend two years collecting it). These details can be easily verified, so this is just lazy writing.The story makes use of numerous quotes. If the crew can translate them, there's no reason they couldn't figure out that they are rather famous quotes. I recognized several, as soon as I heard the translation. There's no reason the crew shouldn't recognize them, if they are as intelligent as is suggested. Furthermore, the quotes just don't make that much sense. Why are they in the original languages? The character who speaks them is described as having little education or intelligence, and we never get a reasonable explanation for this. As a group, the quotes make much more sense in reference to the themes in the story, but not as part of the main action.I think the story would have benefited significantly from more editing and revision in the writing stage and the help of a technical expert or two.As it is, I want to say it's a valiant effort for a low budget movie, but there are big problems with the story, and a million dollars is still quite a bit to work with. They clearly were able to put together some reasonable special effects, which tends to be one of the biggest expenses for sci-fi movies. This movie falls down at a more basic level: bad science and poor story telling. It really is frustrating, because the pieces are there to make a smart, killer, low-budget movie in the vein of Screamers or Slipstream.

Had this been a 50 million dollar project from a big studio with budget all over the place you'd have stars and perfect lighting, fresh dialogue, a lot of ka-boom, and whatnot, but probably also some really stupid plot holes.Then I would rant on about some of the camera, some lighting here and there, and some of the acting, but most of all about the plot holes. I have a problem with films that tell me one concept in the beginning, and then trash that ten minutes later, as if I didn't remember.But in this case, I just have to root for the makers. They only had a million, and came up with characters, and a pretty good story, that does not have the plot holes. So, at no point in the film I felt as if the makers thought I was stupid. On the contrary. The story even came up with a few twists, that I did not see coming.Is it as intricate and mind-beding as "Primer"? No.Is the acting as staggering as Sam Rockwell in "Moon"? No.But if you saw Primer or Moon, and you liked those, I think you'll have a good time with this one.Or if you like Star Trek.I would put it in the same league. It stays true to what science fiction is.Thanks, Ian Truitner! I also hope to see more from him.Last point: Yes, the acting. They need to work on that a bit, but since I can't act at all, and they really had a limited budget, maybe they just couldn't shoot that take the ten times it takes to get it perfect.

I saw this film at a festival with modest expectations, but it turned out to be a great surprise. Given its low budget don't expect a ton of action and special effects, but the film makes up for it with strong acting, intrigue and a story that keeps you guessing. I think some of the criticism saying it's boring must not be fans of classic Sci-Fi, which were more about atmosphere and making a statement about the future (or potential future) of humanity through the imaginary world of science fiction. For that matter 2001 or Blade Runner could be called dull, because there's long stretches without action. Teleios is dialogue heavy for sure, but it has strong pacing and wait for last 30 minutes when what you thought you knew what was going on gets turned upside down. The film was released under the name Beyond the Trek, which is a somewhat erroneous title as it has nothing to do with the Star Trek franchise. Still, if you like Star Trek, particularly the classic stuff, Teleios (Beyond the Trek) is worth a watch.