5 December 2017. The elite team that lands on this alien world in order to destroy its inhabitants to save Earth don't present themselves as the most elite team as witnessed in many other action adventure movies, such as the recent 2307: Winter's Dream (2017). The initial banter and the scripted inter-personnel conflicts seem somewhat artificial and clique driven. Later on, there are it appears some character, motivation changes that seem inconsistent or suddenly suspicious, even taking into account the overlying concept of the movie thought might explain such changes. And what's all the groaning about more than half way through? What's even more inexplicable, oddly enough, is why most of this elite team manages to remain alive and not wondering what the hell is going on? Then there the killings, one of which might be considered rather emotionally manipulative in that typically someone else usually would die in such circumstances. And are there any consequences for murder on this planet? This movie was scripted and directed as a psychological thriller where with every behavior and statement, murderous paranoia and suspicion reigns. What is real and what isn't? There are scenes that raise moral questions, cerebral existential conundrums attempting to elevate this sci fi film into a more substantive product. The several scenes of supposedly mental visions are at times themselves pretty obviously scripted and unconvincing. Unlike the classic sci fi space adventure Alien (1979), the characters aren't as authentic and natural in their performances something that the director, Ridley Scott, emphasized along with realism for art design and setting.
The overall presentation of this movie is somewhat like an extended science fiction television episode from the updated Outer Limits (1995-2002) even to the plot outline used by several episodes. The immediate irritable behavior and attitude of the doctor is such that unlike the more devious and even more horrifying normality of Ash from Alien, the doctor's presentation is almost too stark and unconvincing. As with John Carpenter's The Thing (1982), oftentimes it is what seems normal but is not that is even scarier because we as human's are unprepared for the unsuspecting danger of the creeping or sudden strange. Because of the large amount of non-action on screen, the dialogue and individual performances are crucial to the success of the movie.
Conceptually, the storyline is solid and creatively imaginative if not original and its apparent with some of the scenes how this movie with a better script and possibly different director and actors could have been a superb contribution to the sci fi movie genre. The latter part it's difficult to tell how much it was the screenplay that created most of the problems with this movie. A much better movie presentation using some of the same themes as Homeworld would be horror genre movie, The Devil's Tomb (2009) released a year later. The attempt at a twist of a twist seems to succeed at the end, but in some ways, it still feels unconvincing. As for the ending, John Carpenter's horror cerebral genre movie, Prince of Darkness (1987) actually has a much more haunting and captivating ending.
