Teleios

"Teleios" is a new sci-fi film from Ian Truitner and what makes it worth seeing is its budget. Until recently, independent filmmakers would rarely touch sci-fi as the films were quite expensive to make… mostly due to the special effects. However, recent advances with software have allowed gorgeous cinematic quality CGI at a relatively small cost. This would explain why a film with only a million dollar budget would look this good! For that reason alone, the movie is well worth seeing.

The film is set in the mid-21st century. Genetically modified humans are proliferating on the planet and they are stronger, smarter and more capable in many ways compares to 'normals'. A space ship, the Teleios, with five of these super humans is about to make contact with a vessel that's been stranded in space for some time…and no one is sure whether anyone is left alive on this stricken ship. The crew's orders are, first and foremost, to recover the cargo from the ship. But there mission is soon complicated by many things. The crew of the stricken vessel has all been killed…with only one remaining as well as a robot and neither seem willing or able to explain what happened. The other problem is that these super men and women are beginning to show signs of weakness…weaknesses they supposedly have overcome. Their emotions are running amok and soon they begin preying on each other. Why and what's to become of their mission?

The best things about the film are the CGI, costumes and music. All of these look very professional and caught my attention. As for the story, it's only fair and is, at times, a tad confusing. Because of this, it's a movie that might just improve with repeated viewing. Overall, a mixed bag but a lesson on economical and effective filmmaking…and a decent sci-fi flick as well.

In the beginning two things attracted my attention and caused me to examine this movie: the poster, which is graphically original, and the title which is incomprehensible, unless you are familiar with Greek. After looking it up I learned TELEOIS stands for "perfection". So, my artistic sense was pleased, my linguistic knowledge increased - so far, so good.

Then the time came to watch the film. Knowing its budget was limited I did not expect fireworks of production values, but it not necessarily makes a good sci-fi picture an impossibility. One spacecraft with a crew of 5 is sent to investigate the demise of the crew of another space vessel. A premise more than satisfactory. A certain parallel with EVENT HORIZON (1997) may by seen here, though the Paul W.S. Anderson's work itself is hardly original, as it borrows heavily from NIGHTLYERS (1987).

The rest, with very few exceptions, is sorrowfully miscarried. The direction seems to be almost absent, or present at its incompetent worst. Majority of the actors are so lame it seems their acting lessons had the form of a correspondence course. Especially Lance Broadway, T.J. Hoban and Christian Pitre deliver performances of abysmally bad quality.

However, Ursula Mills makes Lulu AH 320 an interesting robotic character. And then there's is ravishing Sunny Mabrey who can act and can bring some conviction to her lines, her final speech sounds quite poignant and dramatic, but it is not enough to save the misbegotten movie. More than a decade passed since she appeared in SPECIES 3 where she had little to say and served mostly as a nude window dressing. Now she is an accomplished actress and deserves much better roles.

The costumes represent an utter lack of visual taste. And it would have sufficed to remove those hideous frontal brown areas, otherwise they are nicely female figure hugging.

In summarum, this motion picture is worth viewing only for Ms Mabrey, other reasons are extremely difficult to be found. On second thoughts, some might be tempted to see Michael Nouri in his brief video transmissions to notice how he has aged since the time of FLASHDANCE (1983).

Without a forum, I cannot reply to review such as below...which is a bit harsh. The movie is a mishmash of 2001, Event Horizon, Lost in Space. Its a better movie story-wise than passengers (2016) with the Hollywood sweethearts JLaw and Pratt. Doesn't have the Hollywood budget unfortunately.

The mystery was gripping and kept the attention BUT the resolution was a bit weak.

The Genetic Transformed (GT?) Super Humans of the future are sent to fix the mistakes of a previous human mission to the distance planet. They find a lone Human survivor and artificial person.

Then everyone, it seems, malfunctions, and ethical dilemmas and decisions have to be made....

Interesting use of literature from Tolstoy to Sun Tzu....

"This seems to have started out as a thought-provoking script and devolved into a thoughtless movie, mainly due to the ridiculous costumes that looked like they were created by Project Runway rejects - the poorly sewn dart seams on the voluptuous actresses' costumes were distracting, and the shoulder pads were ill-fitted on the hunky guys' costumes, and let's not forget those high heel booties so necessary on space missions. This looked as if someone decided the acting was going to be so bad that they may as well make a porn, and then forgot the porn."

This movie examines some big ethical and moral issues. Any film that quotes Tolstoy and Moliere is for thinkers. It may be sci-fi, acuity is not the best, but really quite good. Questions about eugenics, intellectual property rights, the morality behind life and death decisions, and the emotional weaknesses of humankind make it intellectually interesting. Reviewers who have focused on the costumes are missing the point widely.

The space effects here are good. I rather think they could have included them more often to build atmosphere, and as a breather from the understandably (only) slightly claustrophobic effect of the limited set. I think the makers realised that too and thus put thought into screen backgrounds, a nice touch. If you watch the movie, and you definitely should if you love intelligent sci-fi, then you'll see what I mean. The computer graphics effects were also really good and a plausible technological look forward. I just read the synopsis/blurb for this movie and, if you haven't read it, don't. You'll enjoy the movie much more if you go in blind. At first you may feel the acting is a bit stiff, even for corporate/military astronauts, but bear with it. I loved the story/plot. I would have given it more stars if the direction had heightened the tension of the big reveals. In my humble opinion that required a bit more effort. We want dazzling wow moments, not just how-about-that moments. More than that is the sets, which needed to be way more spacious and a tad grungy, as in Alien movies (it is a mining ship). There's some odd bits of editing too, too many shots of people's boots (very minor criticism). The image on the dvd cover is separate artwork from the movie, though consistent with the style of the cgi. There were some nice effects with luminous pieces of uniforms and light displays on weapons, especially during power outages. I would have loved to have seen more of that. Really cool robot as well. To be honest its hard to review this movie without spoilers. Intelligence over aesthetics, so it's a solid 8 stars from me.