Virtuality

Virtuality is the pilot of yet another "Long voyage into space" series. It competes directly against Defying Gravity, another show in the same genre.

My first thought was that I would not want to trust my life into the hands of this crew. They're a bunch of wimps. I can not believe that they could possibly be the best that Earth would send on a trillion dollar space voyage. We have a crew of comfort junkies who are not even physically fit. The second officer and chief engineer is in a wheel chair. I am for affirmative action and reasonable accommodation as much as the next guy, but a space ship on a twelve year mission is not the place for a paraplegic. What if something goes wrong? So what are the "oh so lovey and oh so politically correct" cliché' gay couple doing on the ship? All I have seen them do is cook, cuddle and complain! And what about the girl who was using a video game on the ship's bridge while on duty? And that leads me to the next complaint. Our crew of futuristic video gamers clearly are having a major malfunction with their Nintendo WII. It's playing its own games with them, and those games involve their own deaths. As the Captain of the ship, I'd order everyone to surrender their 3D goggles and for the system to be used only for authorized and required functions that are directly related to furthering their mission. Instead, they keep on playing until I became oh so bored.

I just got around to seeing this, in 2015, since I rarely watch TV, so at first I thought it was a crazy movie with even crazier ending. Now I know it was a pilot. While it is shot beautifully and the science of the set decoration is wonderful, I was a bit bothered by the character writing. The crew do not seem like NASA people or even scientists. So it falters fatally there. Why was the mission, a very serious thing, being used for a reality TV show? Other than to advertise that general idea to Fox audiences. Although the quizzical characters did fit that plot line and it would have been food for little plot lines and maybe solve some of the mysteries on board. Even with the character issues, I would have liked to have seen at least one season, although if it had been picked up in 2009, we might not have had Nikolaj Coaster-Waldau (the Commander) on Game of Thrones (Jamie Lannister). Very hard to imagine GOT without him, so all worked out for the best.

This film is about the twelve astronauts who are on a spacecraft, going to a distant star that takes ten years to arrive. On board, things start to go wrong and yet they cannot turn back.

"Virtuality" seems good on paper. It is directed by a famous director, has several known (but not very famous) stars, and an intriguing plot. However, it does not seem to work well. The story might have been interesting, but the delivery of the plot is very confusing. There are many mystifying events on board the spacecraft, and these events are not explained well. I was hoping that the ending would bring some answers, but it brings even more unanswered questions. All the confusion annoys rather than being thought stimulating.

In addition, the film fails to grip viewers or to provide suspense for viewers to beg for me. "Virtuality" is a disappointingly confusing film.

The problem with a science fiction movie/show based off human drama, is that on a mission of earth shattering importance, the crew are almost entirely antagonistic whiny incompetents, who have no business being responsible for a trillion dollar spaceship.

Quite early on it becomes obvious that the captain, who is the final decision maker on anything important, is of dangerously low intelligence, and would not be capable of managing an ice cream truck, let alone a 'world saving' space mission.

I think real astronauts would find this movie insulting.

But the visuals are nice.

reminds me of Harlan Ellison's "The Starlost", but also of sci-fi gems like "2001: A Space Odyssey", "Sunshine", "Solaris"...

first impression? Loved it!!! just brilliant! with wonderful characters that I felt deeply invested in - that by the time the gamechanger of an ending came I was left broken and demanding answers! that it just couldn't be!! I felt angry and a little bit betrayed. But mostly I wanted some explanation of what just happened. I didn't want to believe it at first. Then I understood the logistics of producing a Pilot - that sth had to grip you and sth needed to stand out amongst other new shows. On the other hand - this kind of storytelling - providing topics for discussion, for later pondering, for breaking each scene into little pieces of a great puzzle - this kind of storytelling is what I love most. I won't soon forget this little piece of art. please FOX give us more eps of this touching and ingenious new show.