Dark Space (2013)

This movie has some twists; it's different from the cliche of college friends vacationing their way through blackout drunks, vomiting, tits and ass, and the all-important, "Don't go in/out there!"It starts out funny, great characters, awesome sets, decisions were made, it hits the fan, then it's life-or-death (and a nice butt). Terrifying aliens. Good sides, bad sides, and survival for some, but not the ones I thought. Fantastic and well done!

It's frustrating to watch this film because it had so much potential and with a tiny re-write it could have been really special. In its present form, however, it's a bit tough to love.A few months ago, I reviewed a low budget sci-fi film that surprised me. While "Starship Rising" had many faults, I was extremely impressed by the look of the movie. Despite having almost nothing to spend to make the film, the special effects looked so very professional. It's too bad that the film wasn't particularly good when it came to what is important--the plot. Well, when I watched "Dark Space" a few days ago, I felt like it was a case of deja vu! Once again, here was a sci-fi film with a minuscule budget yet had exquisite special effects that made the film look very professional. Yet, as in "Starship Rising", the writing left a lot to be desired. If the makers of either film could improve the writing and characters significantly, I would sure to love to see more of their work."Dark Space", unfortunately, starts off very, very poorly. My youngest daughter was watching the film with me and she kept remarking how dumb the characters were--and she was right. Believe it or not, although the film is set in the distant future where space travel is commonplace, the characters seem like they were lifted out of an old "Friday the 13th" or "Halloween" movie! I half expected them to land on a planet where they'd find themselves at an abandoned summer camp or roller disco and the characters lacked depth--they were just there to be killed by some unseen menace. Many of the characters (particularly Devin) were irritating and completely ridiculous...and seemed more like clichés than people. At this point, you might wonder why we continued watching since we hated the characters so much (and we REALLY hated them). Well, we assumed it was just a really, really bad film and we were actually having a good time laughing at the writing and characters since they were so bad. However, through the course of the film something strange happened--we both found we had to finish the movie and we actually were enjoying what we were seeing. However, I wonder how many people would bother sticking with this one.On the plus side, the outer space scenes are extremely professional and look like something out of Hollywood as are the aliens. Additionally, although the plot is quite simple (sort of like combining Friday 13th with Predator), it works well and gets better as the film progresses. Plus, the explanation as to what is occurring and why is really very creative. The bottom line is that the film has a lot of merits...along with some god-awful characters that seemed more like caricatures than people. By the way, if you are looking for an ultra low-budget sci-fi film which has a bit more to offer, try "Hunter Prey". Despite a simple plot, the film is rock solid from start to finish and is a great example of what can be done by clever filmmakers even if they are hampered with a micro-budget.

I love sci-fi, so I am a bit biased in this genre. The story is OK. It's just too predictable. Another poorly scripted movie with heavy VFX; where the dialogue is unrealistic, the personas of the crew are unrealistic, and the actions they take are unrealistic. Poor choices all around. It's just another sci-fi movie on the shelf. I knew everything that was going to happen almost 4-5 minutes before it happened. How did I know a girl was gonna survive to the end and be the heroine? Because the girl always survives. Yawn. Only 1 person gets seriously injured in the crash. Poor choice. The entire party (save for the tech guy and the injured) leave the ship? Um... sorry. No way. The ship is the most important asset. If it's an unknown world, chances are... you guessed it... there's nothing out there worth searching for but food and water. Do they go hunting or collecting resources? lol You guessed it again. No, they go swimming. Wait, you mean to tell me that despite all the survival shows on TV, they missed that? Um, we have crocs on Earth. WTF is in the water dumb@$$. Nobody filled a canteen. They went swimming. Wow. When the tech guy leaves the ship at night, and just stands there waiting for the aliens. Laughable. No f***ing way. I wouldn't even stand outside my tent in Yellowstone with creatures I know exist (bears, wolves) let alone an alien world! And when the aliens are seen zipping by at the speed of blurred vision. It's amazing that the tech guy has all the time in the world to outrun the alien carrying a wounded friend. Wow. Really poor choices. Too many inconsistencies. I will say though... that there were a few moments where I did laugh out loud. Not to the credit of the movie's direction, but because the script was so bad... I couldn't help but think. No one in the world talks this way. I mean. These guys are drinking and smoking on the ship. Party animals, and then when it's time for conversation... the atmosphere feels so dry it's hard to believe that any of these characters are actually likable. They all just talk about sex, but you SEE NOTHING. LOL!!! As in any movie though, if you stimulated a response (my review here)... you've won. I watched the entire movie, so Kudos to the film for getting the job done. I was just left unfulfilled. We don't need more sci-fi movies. We need better sci-fi movies. I own Humanity's End by the way. I love my sci-fi. On your next go-around, please correct these mistakes. Freegin contact me. I'll proof the script. Let's get the next movie done right!

What first looked like it was going to be a camp slasher movie in space became much worse. Only the stereotypical characters were ripped from the slasher movie. The "assertive" chick, her torch-holding boy "friend", the hippie/stoner, the nerd, the chick with the boobs, and the narcissistic a-hole that everyone wants to see bite it.The writing and acting were total crap, the physics were of the Star Wars variety. Laws of physics? We don't need no stinking laws of physics! We just fly like airplanes! I can enter a planet's atmosphere and land by hand, after the nerd does his figures on his iPad, I've played vidgames! See? They even use my joystick controller). The terrain kept switching from tall pine forest to rocky desert over just a few steps (seems they may have had only 2 exterior locations to use, and said screw continuity).Did anyone actually think the actors looked like "college students"??? They looked old enough to be driving their kids to soccer practice in the mini-van (they could have been a backup cast for "Grownups"). I've seen better student films (at least the cast would be age-appropriate).I got to watch it as part of my Netflix subscription, and even then I'm tempted to ask for a refund.