Starship: Rising

I literally just create an account to warn everyone that this sh*t (can't even call it a movie) WASTED an hour of my life. This sh*t is the worst decision you will ever made, worse than missing the birth of your first kid, worse than EVERYTHING. This is probably the worst thing you will ever see.

I have to give props to the first few minutes, because it is the only thing that keeps me watching until the end cause I was hoping this leads to something spectacular (never mind the "acting" and all those stuff), but really nothing.NOTHING. C G I was good if this is for some high school project or something, but really how can anyone decided to produce a movie like this?

"Starship: Rising" is a very, very difficult film to review...and I should explain why. In some ways, it's a bad film--with poor writing and terribly shallow characters. I am not going to gloss over these problems--and they are serious. However, at the same time, the film appears to be amazingly good looking and professional--an odd combination, I know. To me, it has all the look of a fan production--a movie made for sci-fi fans and not intended for general release. And, if this was the case, you cannot really compare the film to a traditional movie. But, apparently it is being released on DVD and Amazon, for instance, is planning on releasing selling it in September.

So while I like some of the fan films, it's because I don't mind when the film has some rough edges--I expect them. And many of the best Star Trek and Star Wars fan films are very rough but also very enjoyable. As I watched "Starship: Rising", it appeared to be a fan film and thought the editor had sent me a fan film. A fan film, by the way, isn't intended for the average schnook out there--just the ultra-devoted sci- fi folks who might pick up a copy at a convention or pass it among themselves. "Starship: Rising", however, must be held to a higher standard if it's being released to the general public.

Neil Johnson wrote and directed the film and despite its many problems, it's also kind of amazing. Well, The CGI, while not up to the quality of a big-budget Hollywood film is surprisingly good and at times sure comes close to what you'd see in a big-budget theatrical release. I remember years ago when "Babylon 5" was the first TV show that exclusively used CGI for its outer space scenes and they were cool but rough (though the excellent writing more than made up for these shortcomings). However, "Starship: Rising" has graphics that are light- years ahead of those--and I was blown away that a relatively inexpensive film could look this good. And, it's not all looks--the soundtrack is very nice as well. It doesn't sound cheap at all and works well, though I'll admit that it is, occasionally repetitive. Together, they make a film that has a very professional look. As for the story about a dystopian galactic world where an insane leader is bent on destroying Terra (Earth), it has its moments and the various planetscapes look good. So, you have a film that is awfully rough and yet awfully good. I don't recommend it for the casual viewer but for hardcore lovers of sci-fi or folks who like fan pictures and have modest expectations, it's well worth your time. The casual viewer, on the other hand, will no doubt have serious problems with the writing and acting--they just didn't seem polished or ready for a full-length film. A nice try...and perhaps with experience Johnson will be able to pull it all together.

By the way, if you want to see a micro-budgeted sci-fi film that manages to have the great look you expect from a sci-fi outer space film AND great writing and characters, try to find a copy of "Hunter Prey". It is exceptional and packs a lot into a tiny budget...and you'd never notice the small budget when you see it on the screen.

"Starship Rising" is one of those Sci-Fi movies that tries too hard to accomplish a lot of things, but failing to do so and managed to swing and miss greatly in the attempts to achieve greatness.

The storyline is sketchy and not fully coherent. It is about a crumbling empire, and ah, well forget it, I don't really know, because the movie was just not easy to submerge yourself into, and I have to admit that I gave up not even 35 minutes into the movie.

What made me give up on the movie, aside from what seemed to be a series of random scenes put together and calling it a movie, was the overall sense of failed blue (or green) screen scenes that were dominant throughout the entire movie. The scenes just looked so fake that you want to claw your eyes out.

The CGI effects were adequate though. Although I didn't really get the fact why every spaceship had to fly in turning spiral. It just didn't make any sense. And the weaponry on the ships, well they were just laughable and anything but believable. And the infantry weaponry as well, a rifle that was almost bigger than the woman carrying it? Sure, why not...

The movie borrows a lot from other Sci-Fi franchises and movies, and that ultimately makes it seem like a product that is not its own, but a mere cash-in on what other TV shows and movies managed to succeed on. Except that "Starship Rising" just failed to execute it.

This was definitely a Sci-Fi movie that swung wide and missed even wider.

It was a porno right? I mean it must have been... what with the obvious innuendo twist on Jupiter Ascending (not heard it referred to as a "starship" before but whatever), much like the Flesh gordon take on Flash Gordon, the crappy acting, non existent plot. meaningless dialogue and the dodgy looking women displaying more make up than a Debenhams cosmetic counter and obvious low budget.

The narration started off quite well; thought it was going to have a Red Dwarf theme initially. Then it went a bit Doctor Whoish, which didn't bode well and by the time the introductory narration finished I had not only lost the plot but also the will to live.

Anyway, things perked up a bit when this fairly fit looking blonde rucked up. Here we go, I thought; crappy intro- check, crappy acting - check. About time for the blond to turn around to one of the guys and come up with some cheesy line like "Is that a "starship" in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me" before getting her kit off and some raunchy action. Boy was I disappointed. Where were all the sex scenes for fecks sake? Did they just forget to put them in or what? Veerrry disappointing.

In the future, the universe is controlled by the Federation - Some people decide to rebel when orders are given to destroy earth but really this plot doesn't come across at all or make any sense what so ever.

It is extremely rare that I will not watch a film to the end no matter how terrible it is but this was just really dire. After 10 minutes I found my mind wandering, after 20 minutes I had no interest in any of the characters, story or plot - what there was of it. There was simple no level of emotion of realism in any of the performances.

The story as it stands is basically ripped off the old BBC series Blake's 7, which had the universe controlled by the Federation and their weapons system for controlling the climates on a thousand worlds was called Star One - all sounding very familiar - I mean at least give the bad guys a different name come on!

I am trying to think of some constructive comments to make about this movie. The FX cheap though they were at least were trying to create a sense of worlds and a universe within which these dull bland characters existed. Generally Hollyoaks is not the best place to find your lead actor and top criticism here has to go Darren Jacobs who is just plain bad. The chief Villain is just someone (The Director) doing a bad Bane voice with some awful CGI.

Because there is so much CGI and everything bar a few tiny sets is basically very sterile there is no sense of time or place. Characters were not well introduced, the script was really really poor and the space battles are just terrible.

It's really rare I will give such a low review but in this case there was no other option, rebellion or not.