Deus

In the future, the Earth is being crushed by over-population. A mysterious black sphere is orbiting Mars and tycoon Vance sends the spaceship Achilles to investigate. Karla Grey (Claudia Black) is one of the six person crew waking up from hibernation. The sphere starts repetitively transmitting one word, Deus.

This is a British sci-fi film that is a bit above TV level but not quite theatrical level. The first half has elements of sci-fi horror. That's what I'm expecting when one of them starts killing. It's sort of like Event Horizon with less gore. The writing is a little clunky. The most obvious sign is that everybody keeps calling Karla Grey by her full name. It's not dialogue. It's a writer writing down words. Then it delivers its big reveal. Without spoiling, I can say that I appreciate the attempt. It reminds me of an old sci-fi magazine story with a twist. It doesn't really work in the real, but it has hints of something solid.

This is another entry in the "let's rid Earth of people we hate" space missions. A crew is shot into space to investigate a mysterious sphere.

The characters are obnoxious, offensive, and tedious. Three of the crew (a woman and two men) freak out when answers aren't immediately forthcoming even before they approach their destination. If they received any training at all, it was on the order of a two hour seminar at DeVry. There isn't one relatable character, which eliminates any chance of tension or engagement with the proceedings.

The acting is terrible, but whether that is due to the failings of actor or script is unclear. The dialog is largely superfluous, adding little or nothing to the story. Before they reach the sphere one character sagely says, in about a thousand words, "we have find out what the sphere is". Well, duh! That's the point of entire mission. Perhaps that dude on the ground should have briefed them before launching them into space. Then again, only one guy on earth is interested in their progress, and his instructions are basically: keep going.

They saved a lot of money by not having a lighting budget. The spaceship has about five watts of lighting for some reason. Everyone stumbles around in the dark.

I won't spoil the "thrilling" conclusion to the mystery. But suffice it to say you won't care one way or the other.

Three stars only because I didn't turn it off. Everything else adds a grand total of zero stars. Which puts it two stars above the horrendous Rings of Power, fake reviews notwithstanding. Three stars.

OK. So we have to be realistic... SciFi films don't exactly must be scientifically accurate (yeah.. Darth Vader isn't real, right?). But at least show some coherence. A sphere is found in Mars orbit in a future far enough to hibernate people and wake them back, and build a really big ship with artificial gravity, then they took 8 months to reach Mars? I am pretty sure SpaceX will do better in a few years... And using hibernation for an 8 months trip in such a large ship with a handful of crewmates? Are you kidding me?

Cast was fairly good, and I am sure they spent a good deal of money in this film, yet the script is poor, to say at least. Don't waste your time as I wasted mine.

You can tell newb writer and director Steve Stone's inexperience was evident in this film, especially failing to direct his cast properly. Even Claudia Black looked lost in some scenes, and Richard Blackwood as the commander was just horrible and unconvincing in every scene, not to mention annoying. His demeanor, (lack of) facial expressions and body language, tone of voice and dialogue was just all wrong.

Conceptually the story was interesting, but it suffered plot and technical issues, and the slow pacing with many long dragged out and unnecessary scenes made the normally comfortable 90 min runtime feel much longer. It needed more story to fill in the time, or cut down to a short film. Much of the dialogue felt very amateurish, especially the AI, and writing could've used more suspense and action instead of constant cam views and cheesy cheap random shots.

The visuals however were decent for a low budget B film, and the score was excellent, especially for a B film, where the score is usually too loud, constant, annoying and unfitting.

As a huge sci-fi fan, I still enjoyed it, as I've seen much worse, and seeing it through till the end says a lot. For a low budget B film from a newb filmmaker, I'd say it's a decent one-time watch if you're a sci-fi fan. Had the actors been better cast and/or directed, this film would've been much better. Still, a generous 6/10 from me.

The first half of the film is definitely a chore to watch but it does get somewhat better in the second half.

The main things about Deus that suck include most of the dialog, some of the actors, some of the set design (for example: hexagon shaped doors), and the terrible accent for the computer AI. Also, the ending felt a little abrupt.

The graphics are pretty good and the story itself isn't terrible.

Claudia Black is, of course, the films saving grace.

Considering how awful most low budget movies have been lately, this one is entertaining.

If you can manage the first half, it turns out to not be a waste of time.