Beyond White Space

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.

The visual affects are awesome, sets are awesome, production quality is great, acting is good, the score is decent, the directing is poor the script is bad.

This could have been fantastic action adventure tragedy movie, but to me, it feels like a balloon that never gets completely inflated, and the air is slowly let out, leaving me feeling frustrated, confused and annoyed.

We are introduced to the Captain and his motivations, through a flashback. Then another shortcut to introduce the rest of his crew through a 'most wanted' summary.

Perhaps it was poorly edited to cut runtime, but I never felt anything for the characters, their motivations were either thrust into the story, or left out completely. No ahhh! moments, no 'oh, I thought you were a good guy, but your bad!'.

The music never really adds to the suspense or helps tell the story, its just there. Its good, but all it seems to do is break the silence, rather than being a tool to tell the story.

Aliens does so much with so little, yet this movie does so little with so much.

Still, its worth watching, just because it actually exists. *First review I've posted on IMDB.

Well written, well acted and the story was ok too. I thought this was worth more than the IMDb rating it received. And I can't believe how much Zulay Henao reminded me of Megan Markle, just saying..

It is the 22nd Century. The USS Essex is travelling in the furthest reaches of the known Universe when it encounters a gigantic creature. It is then boarded by pirates who take their cargo and most of their supplies. The crew decide to capture the creature to make up for their loss of cargo.

I had low expectations for this movie. From the cast and crew you can tell it is very likely to be B-grade. The only known face among them all is Holt McCallany, of Mindhunter fame. Yet the movie isn't that bad.

Well, it's still not good, just not as bad as it could have been. Plot is basic but doesn't go off in too many detours. Direction isn't great but is functional. Characters are stereotypical but don't get cartoonish. Dialogue manages to avoid being cringeworthy. Some performances are pretty lame but most are okay.

Overall, not great but better than expected.