Space Wars: Quest for the Deepstar

I have to admit that when I sat down to watch the 2022 sci-fi adventure movie "Space Wars: Quest for the Deepstar", then I wasn't really harboring the biggest of expectations to the movie. First of all, the movie's title just screamed low budget, and the cast ensemble wasn't exactly top of the line either.

However, I opted to give director Garo Setian's 2022 movie the benefit of the doubt and sit down to watch it.

The storyline in the movie, as written by Joe Knetter and Garo Setian, was watchable for what it was. And that was a generic space adventure. But hang on, I will say that there was a distinct atmospheric feel of the low budget space adventure sci-fi movies of the 1970s and 1980s. So if you enjoy those corny, campy space adventures, then perhaps "Space Wars: Quest for the Deepstar" will prove entertaining and enjoyable for you.

I found little to be thrilled or entertained about throughout the 90 minutes that the movie ran for, and I will not be returning to watching it a second time. Then again, I am not overly keen on sci-fi in general, so that also speaks against this movie.

The acting performances in the movie were fair enough, for the most parts. There were some toe-curling and cringeworthy acting from the actress portraying the main villain.

Visually then I will say that "Space Wars: Quest for the Deepstar" was actually not bad. Sure, it wasn't impressive and in-your-face special effects that will blow you away. But in all fairness, then the CGI used in this 2022 sci-fi adventure movie was actually not bad.

My rating of "Space Wars: Quest for the Deepstar" lands on a four out of ten stars.

Know what? I reckon the eponymous "Deepstar" saw the storyboard and post-haste fled into hiding! That left space scroungers "Kip" (Michael Paré) and his feisty daughter "Taylor" (Sarah French) faced with quite a search to track it down. Along the way they realise that they are not the only seekers of this dream-fulfilling gizmo - beware "Dykstra" (Olivier Gruner) - and that the universe is really quite a perilous place! This has video game written all over it with the dangers seemingly increasing exponentially until the prize is (or isn't in their grasp). The visual effects are passable, but the rest of this is pretty sub-par(sec) stuff that is clearly a labour of love for those behind it but it's really just a labour for those of us who recall the heady days of the "Outer Limits" - from about 1963! To be fair, it moves along quickly enough but it's all rather unsahsamedly predicable gung-ho stuff you may smile at - risibly - before you immediately forget all about it.

Had a blast watching this popcorn indie Sci Fi action adventure film. Reminded me of growing up in the 80s and renting it at a Mom and Pop Store before Blockbuster existed. Michael Pare and Sarah French had a great chemistry and how to play off each other in their roles. They play Father and Daughter adventurers looking for the Deep Star that could give them whatever they want and bringing a loved one back to life with the liquid essence of the person who passed away and transferred into a cyber human hybrid. The film score is like listening to a space opera performed by Joel Christian Goffin. You can tell Garo Setian put his labor and love into it.

To me, Michael Paré brings back my childhood, the B movies that were at the same time awesome and ridiculous. It's easy to understand why the first thing that pops up when you google him is "how old is Michael Paré?". Well, he's 65 and he now plays in these independent movies that are as low budget as they come. But they are also fun.

In this one, stupidly called Space Wars because there are just a bunch of people on ships shooting at each other and nothing at the scale of a war, three parties are engaged in finding either a legendary space treasure or each other in order to enact revenge. The CGI is ludicrous, the green screen effects are obvious, the acting is almost terrible, the story is pathetic. Yet I enjoyed it. Not because of any inherent technical quality of the film, but because someone scrapped to get this done, did whatever they could to make it happen and had fun doing it.

Bottom line: a ridiculous movie, but one that fills me with nostalgia for the films of old, where the greatest achievement you could think of was getting the movie done and the rest was the pure joy of performing.

I immediately noticed the very bad casting, all the actors lack charisma and personality and their acting is boring if not ridiculous.

The first half of the movie is just a sequence of actions with very few dialogs, so it's almost entertaining. Nothing spectacular or original. It feels like some washed out guardians of the galaxy, and we follow the heroes as they keep putting themselves in trouble. The CGI looks like a video game with some very bad green screens.

But that's where the film takes another turn for the worse, and the poor writing and acting take over the action scenes. It feels like they ran out of money and decided to focus on the character psychology. The film completely loses its pace and collapses into absolute mediocrity.

If you want some cheesy 60/70s sci-fi movies, watch Starcrash or Barbarella, they are better than this.