pontram

David Vyle Levi works in the art department where he obviously shines, luckily as a director/writer this is his only work, and hopefully it stays that way...as it did for the last 11 years. Let's be honest, this is not what it wants to be. Props, costumes, Fx and camera are ok, but that's it, story and dialogues are barely bearable, full of cliché of the early 2000s or 1990s. Acting is as good as direction and script allow. As a first episode of a SciFi-show it could somehow pass, if the show then gets a massive upgrade in storytelling and direction. But it did never happen, and where this maybe unjust with several other pilots, here it's not. Sorry to sound harsh, I appreciate the hard work and efforts and money spent, but it cannot be always lead to a masterwork.

Storyline, writing, directing, acting, scene, photography, effects, wardrobe.... The perfect mix of all components together in one surprising gem of a production.

Yes, I took the main sentence of one of the 1-star reviews here and modified it to what pretty much sums up the impression I had from this movie.

It is, in my opinion, a rare case, where an unexpected watch led me to a wonderful experience.

Whoever may have expected some Bruce Willis movie clearly didn't read the synopsis. It's a light-hearted, well-played, well-written little comedy about a little family that settles in a small town, only to learn that this town will be the impact center of an approaching asteroid.

And though there isn't real drama or any action, the movie kept me sitting through to the end.

I wanted to give it 7 stars, but for upping it a little, i gave 8.

And I ask my self, why good movies off the mainstream get low ratings.

Someone decided to put an upright piano into the living quarter of the station, a thing that is about 200 kg - who would have permitted this ballast in times of virtual pianos ;-) That's one of the many nice ideas that give this production some humor and atmosphere, elevating it from other current SF movies (as rare they are now for unknown reasons).

I put this into a virtual category "New Space Pulp Cinema" for its ingenuity on certain levels, while otherwise being quite old-school and, to my disappointment, too gory and predictable, though extremely well-made.

In case of the main actress (only Ms. Gonzalez and Mr. Paul have noteworthy parts, where the latter mainly supports her) it's a bit of a head-scratching for me, I think she is a decent actress, but not quite up to the task here, which I don't blame her for, since said task is extremely difficult here and requires also a much more experienced directing in terms of leading the actors to bloom.

Said directing is overall inspired and good, very modern, even astonishing professional and talented, since Mr. Lotus is mainly a composer, and this project seems to be his first job as director (besides composer, and actor). But, as I mentioned, his skills for leading his actors need some improvement.

Technically, the movie has great camera, style and CGI/FX.

The pacing is also on point, and therefore, at least for me, suspense.

Where it absolutely shines is in the music department, courtesy of Mr. Lotus.

The script though, like in many other productions of today, is the real weak point here.

It builds up suspense, mystery, atmosphere, wherein the movie follows brightly, but fails to deliver something astonishing, or fascinating, like 'Annihilation'. It ends up similar to 'Sunshine', which got back on track during the last three minutes or so, here, this one did - not quite.

Too generic is the climax, too easy and derivative the solution (which we mostly anticipated).

So this idea-rich movie graded itself down through lack of ideas. Pity.

I tried to rate it 7 stars, which is in my system "very good", but could not justify it. It's definitely not lower than a six, a very solid six.

A tip: Wait for the end credits.