The Tank

Pretty decent start - six people thrown into a tank (think Big Brother), and are left to fend for themselves whilst governmental figurehead tries to push the crew to their limits, with dire consequences.

Standard story really, jazzed up with a bit of sci-fi. The actors must not have seen the set beforehand as it looks like it was made from plywood and glue.

The CGI is like a special one-hour episode of X-Files (1993), and the sound mixing is quite good.

We see most of the deterioration through dialogue and plot, the characters themselves do not develop past their lines and whilst one or two actors do a good job of acting insane, the film's lacklustre pacing gives it a very cheap feel.

If you are a sci-fi fan, this may tickle your ivories, but for the general viewer - go watch Big Brother.

So the only part true is the Mars simulator? No one went crazy? Strange why they would say true story so misleading. If they would have left that off I could have stopped googling if this was true or not.

An interesting take on a space movie - being not really a space movie. Plot holes were wayyy too obvious and the flash forwards although good attempts at making the storyline believable, still weren't. Using more logic in the writing/making of this movie would have done wonders. Guessing this was done on a small budget and it did well using that. Some legit scenes which were emotional and moving.

This movie lacked a plot and had an oddly abrupt ending. Without going into spoilers, it's also pretty clear no one in a medical field was consulted on some of the plot points and I was torn between laughing and grinding my teeth with some utterly unrealistic plot points. Also some vaguely offensive portrayals of both gay and religious people, providing an unpleasant experience for almost any viewer. Avoid at all costs.

A better script would have made this film a lot more bearable. I can believe that incompetence or greed might have made a mission destined to fail. But the whole idea was that they rushed the project through to spend their budget surplus. First of all, there are substantially better way to do that. But second and more importantly, how could you rush a project like this that requires setting up a simulated Martian habitat in one of the most inhospitable places on earth?

Furthermore, a simulated mission of Mars analogue conditions would be under constant surveillance. An important aspect of these missions is learning what kinds of interpersonal issues arise and how to determine if a given person is suitable for this kind of mission.

I'm a big fan of science fiction and want there to be some attempt at having science be part of it.