Dark Space

What this movie has that most low budget sci fi efforts don't is a decent effort in nearly every department of film making.

On a budget of just $750,000,you get a movie with a plot that isn't necessarily anything special,but it's clear to see so much has been done with the money.

The plot has a group of youngsters hiring a shuttle to a certain planet for a bit of fun,but end up crash landing on an uncharted planet in a restricted system,where everything from the planets creatures to human soldiers who shouldn't be there,are out to get them.

Time and effort was clearly put in to the above average special effects.The indigenous creature effects are actually rather good,and the armour the human soldiers wear actually looks like some thought and imagination was put into it.

As far as the acting is concerned,nobody comes across as particularly wooden and they give it a good shot so kudos to them.

let's be clear though,there will be scenes where you will look at the screen in amazement thinking "No way would THAT happen",or "No sane person would do that" The soldiers come across as not being able to hit a barn door from 20 paces despite possessing weapons seemingly capable of destroying entire forests in minutes.There are more than a few flaws to be seen.

But you know what?.Look past it's failings and at the budget and what we have here is a movie worth watching far more than a lot of the crap churned out by the Sci Fy channel and Asylum.

There will be a lot of haters of this one,but it deserves a lot more praise than it has been given.

I don't know what I could add to other reviews except to say whatever they paid these "actors" was WAY too much. Two of the girls sounded like they were drunk all the time with a delivery as flat as the floor, which is also exactly the way the ship's computer voice sounded, so one of them obviously did the voice-over. Everything they did throughout the movie was exactly the wrong thing to do, This movie was 90 minutes of my life wasted, and I love bad sci-fi.

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.

Just to be sure no one is mislead, Off World is a poorly done movie. The story is pretty ordinary: a group of college age people go on a spring break road trip in the distant future. They rent a space ship and it crashes (of course) (apparently somewhere in the woods around Denver) and they must fight aliens and Bobba Fett's in order to survive. The story was serviceable enough, but everything else was terrible. The dialog was horrific: I get more p**y there than most people get in a life time. Yes, that was a line delivered with absolutely no context or feeling...yechhhh. The entire script was nothing but sparse and unnatural sophomoric dialog. The acting was about as emotionless as I've ever see in a movie...all lines delivered like a 6th grader reading a book in front of class. And since it is a scifi movie I should mention that there are NO special effects or costumes worthy of putting into a modern day movie. I could go on, but I have already deep 6'ed this movie and don't want to think about it much more. Save yourself a trip to the trash bin and skip this movie.

Given the low budget, the space suits and the shuttle craft are credible, and the special effects are fine, I'd say better than those seen in other Sci-Fi movies spending millions.

However, I'm certain the background idea can be better developed and the uncharted planet be given a far more alien look; that Earth-like aspect is something not to be expected and must be ruled out.

The characters must all be changed, since they become annoying stereotypes of a terrible performance; the writing was unsatisfactory as well.

This movie deserves a second chance; nonetheless, I'd suggest re-writing the script in most parts and gather a completely new set of actors and, finally, give it a more space exploration spirit.