Captain Nova

There are some very redeeming qualities about this movie. There are some very good visuals including the cinematography and vfx. The acting is pretty decent for the most part and the score is very cinematic.

The problem with this film is the writing. It's just horrible. They should have sent this back for a few more rewrites. Nothing makes sense and people do things that have no motivation. The underlying theme is so basic and the situations are so poorly fabricated that the whole story just unravels by the end.

This Dutch language (but well-dubbed into English) sci-fi movie concerns a female pilot who is chosen to go back in time from the Earth of 2050, which is suffering the consequences of a man-made environmental disaster, to 2025, in order to prevent the disaster from taking place.

As with most time travel movies, it has the problem of logical twists; one of these is that the woman loses 25 years in age and becomes the teenage girl that she was in 2025, although the dilemma of meeting her actual self never happens. She then has the challenge of persuading the man who caused the disaster to stop what he was intending to do and thus change the future of the planet. Quite why the pilot did not take a letter from the 2050 man to his 2025 self, or why she did not go back to, say, 2024, which would allow her plenty of time to prevent the 2025 disaster, are never made clear, but the 'last minute' nature of her mission does add to the dramatic tension.

There are some amusing aspects to the story, including a mechanical drone that accompanies her (and which is both seemingly purposeless and never seems to run out of energy) and guns that 'freeze' (put into 'pause mode'), rather than kill, their intended targets.

The film is quite dark and sombre, both in terms of lighting and moods, and the characters seem to be very serious all of the time. The authorities/army of 2025 seem particularly ineffective, with the teenage girl and a boy who helps her continuously running rings around and escaping from them.

The film is well-made, if not spellbinding, with good special effects and credible characters that you want to succeed. Although the target audience is clearly teenagers, the filmmakers do not treat the viewers like idiots, which makes it an interesting and pleasant film for adults, too.

Rare do you find European flicks where youth are portrayed with empathy and a sense of realism. This refreshing movie is no masterpiece for sure but it does entertain and even educate. I found it charming even at my advanced age. Acting is real, the writing fine and the direction decent. Worth a look.

Yes, it could have been better. It could have been a lot better with the same budget, same cast, same visuals, and just a teeny-weeny bit of less wooden acting. But to be fair and square, the high-budget films based on overhyped Philip Pullman's books were much, much worse. This is TV-series level acting in a feature film. But in the times of never-ending Marvel spin-offs it feels a welcome attempt to create something original.

Het is een "goed zo". Keep up good work.

Okay, sure, you could drive a caravan of semis through the plot holes in this and the acting ... well ... let's just say it wasn't exactly top notch but, sorry, I rather liked this movie.

The dubbing was hilarious, rather stunted with long, open mouth pauses as if the actors weren't quite sure what they were suppose to do next. The obnoxious drone/AI had to be the spawn of HAL, the evil dad was pretty much what you'd expect from a rich butthead while the wimpy son was pretty much what you'd expect of his offspring.

Worth the hour plus and by far more entertaining than washing the dishes or folding the laundry though I suppose you could fold the laundry and watch it.