Light

This is the 1st movie in awhile I just couldn't finish. Boring, bad lighting, hoping and praying the monster alien ( in theory, because seeing it is impossible) kills all of them. It's like being in a psychedelic sand storm with no ending in sight. At first, you think they've crash landed in water, because you can't tell. Then, the one astronaut obsessed with alien feces and can't stop digging through it and getting it all over her gloves is just way too gross. And then the "kids in space" really? Trying to get us to see a maternal side when this is space, enough already. Just way too long, nothing ever happens and you're wondering why you watched it.

Well, without ever having heard about this 2024 sci-fi thriller titled "Light", I opted to sit down and watch it, as I stumbled upon it by random chance. I didn't really know what I was in for, but the movie's synopsis sounded interesting enough.

Now, had I noticed that the movie had scored a staggering 2.7 rating here on IMDb prior to sitting down and watching it, I might have skipped on the movie entirely. However, I can understand why the movie has landed such a low rating, because this movie was a swing and a miss from writer and director Matt Woollard.

The storyline is supposed to have an alien creature stalking a crash-landed mother on a dark planet. But instead of that, which actually was an interesting concept, we are treated to 93 minutes of close-ups of Christine Roche and Gia Lily's faces in some low budget space suits, with a purple filter added to the camera, while they are delivering monotone dialogue. Yeah, there was absolutely nothing interesting happening throughout the course of the movie.

I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie. Not that it really mattered, because the acting was severely restricted, as the actresses and actors virtually had nothing to work with.

"Light" looks and feels like it was shot in a 5 foot by 5 foot stage, making it look very low key and low budget.

If you enjoy sci-fi more than life itself, then you might get a kick out of watching writer and director Matt Woollard's 2024 movie. However, if you sit down to watch a movie with the intention of being entertained, then "Light" is not a movie that I would recommend you waste your precious time, money or effort on. Some of us suffered through this dumpster fire of a movie, so you don't have to; you're very welcome.

My rating of "Light" lands on a very generous one out of ten stars.

I began watching this movie with no prior knowledge and low expectations. Within the first 10 minutes, I was excited because "Light" gave me strong vibes of space sci-fi classics like Alien, Prometheus, and Pitch Black. For instance, some of the space gear, like the portable motion sensor, felt straight out of Alien, and the main character could easily have been Ellen Ripley or Elisabeth Shaw. It was clear the director drew a lot of inspiration from Alien and Prometheus. Additionally, the image of a character wrapped in glowing cables while a space monster lurked nearby reminded me of Pitch Black.

However, after those promising first 10 minutes, my interest quickly faded. The plot stagnated, and it became clear that "Light" is a low-budget psychological movie focused on the two main characters who crash-land on a dark, foggy planet where a gem-pooping monster lurks, only appearing at the end. The story centers on these two characters as they struggle with dwindling air supplies, avoiding the monster, and sharing bits of their lives over the radio.

That said, the final 10 minutes did manage to recapture some of my attention. We finally get to see the monster and meet some other characters, including mysterious villains whose identities remain unclear but are crucial to why the main characters' spaceship crashed. The ending also provides powerful examples of both the positive and negative aspects of humanity, including sacrifice, love, greed, and cruelty.

Overall, "Light" might have worked better as a short film rather than a full-length movie. Besides the first and last 10 minutes, the movie dragged, and I seriously considered turning it off after about 20 minutes. I'm glad I didn't, as the ending provided some clarity on the plot, though it still left many questions unanswered. I can't recommend "Light" unless you're looking for background noise while doing something else.

This was definitely a budget Sci Fi film; but having a tight budget is no crime. The premise reminds me of the Sci Fi short stories I used to voraciously consume as a teenager and a young adult. The subject is tightly contained, there's an air of discomfort and oppression, and there's a disturbing twist. I think the acting was fine especially given the constraints of the survival suits they were required to wear, the sense of claustrophobia was palpable, and the story was original (although there were a lot of elements nicked from elsewhere). What ruins it is its length. This should have been a short. And there was a bizarrely hammy interaction near the end with a new character and some hand signals. However, I'm still thinking about the plot the next day - which is a good sign.

I love SciFi movies. But after watching this, I'm not sure I want to waste my time EVER watching another. That's how bad this was. The back and forth half-communication to stir up drama was lacking. The plot, if you can call it that was subpar at BEST!! The story telling was choppy. After falling asleep in the movie, I rewound it to see what I missed, and I really could have just let it end. This was a waste of time and I literally had nothing else to do.

They want me to use 600 words minimum in my review in order for it to be posted. There's literally nothing else I can say about this movie.