White Space

I have a thing for space movies. The trailer seemed reasonable. So I checked out the movie & Oh boy! the VFX is awesome & top notch for such an obscure movie. Then I looked into the director filmography & this guy seems to be the VFX supervisor for many popular films. I guess that's the reason the graphics are a top notch Story wise its so-so but its definitely a popcorn free-time watch if you are into sci-fi, space action flicks.

Ken Locsmandi has a long and impressive background as a special effects master. Beyond White Space (BWS) was a very ambitious project for a first time director, since the story is essentially Moby Dick.

I personally love the idea of rebooting classics into the SF genre. The only problem is that they will inevitably be compared with the classics - very risky.

Moby Dick already has several excellent cinematic incarnations, most recently Heart Of The Sea. These have been big budget, big name productions able to attract seasoned directors and actors.

The special effects in BWS are top notch, as to be expected from Locsmandi. The acting however is hit and miss. This has to be laid on the director, since the actors do prove they can hit their mark occasionally.

I have a feeling too much of the budget went into CG, not filming the endless live takes of inexperienced actors required to hit the mark every time in the final cut.

Perhaps he should have cast at least one seasoned and proven actor to lead the others. It likely would have improved the overall performance. The acting seemed rushed, impatient even.

The movie is far from perfect and I certainly didn't expect much from it, but I found it to be quite enjoyable. Yeah, so it's basically Moby Dick in space, on a low budget, with an underdeveloped script and questionable acting, but I didn't go in expecting Lawrence of Arabia ... and compared to some of the sci-fi-dross out there this one is not too bad. I didn't really like the sudden slasher element introduced towards the end - that was weird and underexplained, and didn't fit in at all, but overall I liked the movie.

I watched this film because it seemed to be a remake/homage to Moby Dick. Well, if Moby Dick is one of the most iconic novels of all time, this film is a washed up mess.

B movie sci-fi films are notoriously bad. They either are so low budget at they are silly, or they come from an Aliens rip off. Beyond White Space is bad for altogether different reasons - a total lack of story telling.

Lets start with what I did enjoy. The effects are better than I expected, the cast is likeable... that's about it.

What is wrong is a total lack of continuity, the ability to build a story, logic of characters or actions or payoff.

The main plot (for no one could count the number of extra sub plots floating around this film) is that an ancient space creature needs to be hunted for some reason; and space pirates are in there somewhere, and space cops? After this, I stopped caring very quickly. The film just does not make sense, and what is even worse is that it becomes anti climactic.

Aside from the total lack of plot, story telling and logic, it is actually not the worse film I have seen so far in 2019, so there is that going for it. I mean, you have been warned, but at least it isn't a very long film. I did give it a 4, so it's only bad. Go chase that whale!

This is obviously B-movie fare. The actors, the story, even the whole idea is very much not top of the line.

BUT the production values are surprisingly good. I was frankly amazed at how well the CGI and sets stood up compared to the rest of the movie. The creatures are not as well made as the rest of the CGI, but still a fair notch above standard B movie quality.

If you are a scifi geek the world it is set in is enough to see it. The story itself is kind of lame. 5 stars for sets, CGI and space. 1 star for all the rest.

PS The guy saying that the effects are bad obviously wrote his review based on the poster and name of the movie.. No way he watched it.