Nova

Enjoyable independent sci-fi film with a compelling narrative about a small crew composed of humans and humanoid robots en route to the Mars colony. Was pleasantly surprised that despite the low budget, the production quality was high enough and consistent throughout the film to keep me captivated. The acting is okay, my favorite actor being the one who played the ship's captain, but also the woman who played the titular character had me forgetting she was human. Also the film handled the challenge of having a young child actress quite well and she did a great job in her role.

All in all a technically solid and fun indie film.

The lead character is Abilene Lamb meaning Grassy Meadow Lamb. But his real name is Chase Pollock which is Chasing Fish. It's just SO dry to watch. The acting is REALLY terrible. Luckily these are supposed to be androids but even a robot in our time has simulated emotions. The character outfits are not even plausible for a crew on a present day shuttle or station. (SERIOUSLY Abilene wearing a white lab coat but also a black cowboy hat with that name? Why not make him spit and speak in a slack jawed southern accent?) The fake eyelashes killed all sense of reality (besides the dry acting). I honestly felt like I was pranked into watching a student film off YouTube but under the heading "a serious Movie." I couldn't finish it. My advice is stick to making YouTube videos and it will look average there. But even on YouTube you'd see more effects and acting.

Fun Fact: Most of the cast are named after places, objects, or things.

Poor acting, poor choice of cast, poor script, poor dialog. Looks like a student film. The kid did the best acting.

The long eyelashes looked silly, but are needed to distinguish the androids (the 'Uncanny valley').

During the dance with Nova and Abilene, the conversation suggests that Nova volunteered for the mission and Abilene followed. If an android can volunteer, that goes against the premise that androids have no freedom.

Poor acting, poor choice of cast, poor script, poor dialog. Looks like a student film. The kid did the best acting.

Poor acting, poor choice of cast, poor script, poor dialog. Looks like a student film. The kid did the best acting.

Not completely bad, just not good enough to recommend. As usual when this happens the script let everyone down.

So a few good things. I think the acting crew wanted to make a go, and some appeared to have certain talent, but the staging was horrid.

For a low budget film they tried to the best they could for scenery and costumes, I will give them that. I might have even overlooked the incredibly thin. But come on, get a clue. Some of it was so bad you should have added 'comedy' to the genre of the movie (simple example, can the women's lashes be any longer?).

I tried to be nice but I have to mention the completely abysmal script and scripting. I don't care how desperate the crew was to be in 'something', this was one you should have turned down.

A few (or maybe more than a few) tweaks and this could have ben a 3 star production. But not now.

The film was very entertaining and thought provoking. Androids that go beyond being just robots. It had a very diverse cast which In this case was a fantastic choice. Nova is an android who has a connection with Abilenes (I think that's how you spell it). The solar flares were interesting. Eventually you get to a point where you're not sure who was human or who was a robot. The set was well done. I wonder though if the captain and crew ever make it to Mars. Will there be a sequel? If so I would like to see it explore what happens with the robots and Mars itself and how they explore that idea. It was a fun film.