Star Hunter

The only reason I gave this movie 1 star is because I couldn't give it any less. An absolute, total waste of time. The special effects were extremely cheesy (flashing lights on the screen for no apparent reason), the acting was horrible (the kids I could understand, but when Roddy McDowell acts "down" to a movie like this, it was really sad to see), the aliens were a total rip-off of Predator (and a bad one at that), the "tracker" was a ridiculous rip-off of the Star Wars Stormtroopers. Stella Stevens looked pretty good but her part was hard to watch as well. It looked as if the entire film was filmed by an eighth grader with a 20 pound shoulder held video camera from the 80's. I usually like anything science fiction, but this was beyond anything I could stomach.

I'm watching this horrible movie when I realize at the beginning this looks familiar. I had recently watched the film "Forbidden World" and recognized the set and robot immediately. Just to be sure I turn FW on and sure enough, identical. I'm curious if the actors from "Forbidden World" know they are in this trash. I checked production companies and they aren't the same. Really bizarre.

I must say I was pleasantly surprised with this film. It focuses on a group of teenagers who are forced into a strange video game like hell after seeking shelter in an abandoned,well so they thought, warehouse. It turns out that an evil monster has been programmed by his master-Roddy McDowell to kill all the teenagers who are now trapped in an electrical magnetic playground where there is no escape!. This film plays like a video game, there are lots of dark corners and corridors and heaps of unexpected frights. The robot/monster is also quite effectively menacing. This film is actually quite a good example of the horror, sci-fi genre. And its different- which is a big plus. In summary a better than expected sci-fi horror, which you should see at least considering watching.

Let's cover the good stuff first: Decent set design. Nice visuals. A good cast that are clearly capable of doing more than they're given here. They've done a reasonably good job of hiding their low budget which is commendable. However, nothing can save this movie from its poor writing. Painful dialogue, odd pacing and and a complete inability to ratchet up the tension results results in an endless string of scenes where teenagers are being chased by a robot killer. This is an example of a production where the filmmakers decided what seems need to be in a sci-fi movie but they forgot that they needed a story.

This movie I have seen maybe twice and it is a very serviceable B movie or an Indie movie that was made for direct-to-DVD movie.

The script is all over the place with padding. Movie is 90 minutes long, it could have been shortened to 60.

But to be honest, this movie is pretty good if you consider it as an indie movie made by a new Jameds Cameron or John Mctierman or Ridley Scott. The cinematographer actually did a pretty okay job with it.

So yeah, I gave it a 4 because it was almost good. I think if they had another couple of rewrites and a clearer vision it could have been a decent movie. And consider that every great scifi director or writer started like this, has anyone seen the first movie of Ridley Scott or James Cameron? I guarantee you that they are not The Terminator or Alien quality. Better to learn in Indie movie how to write and direct to make a blockbuster movie.