Dark Planet

Where is the crew of the Satellite of Love when you need them!!! Only MST3K could help this out! The ship is dark, the costumes are dark, the lighting is dark, and some of the effects budget must have been used up before they started. Skip it.

So many close-ups! I recognise a few actors in this, not all by name (apart from Michael York). Lots of dark, small sets, correction: I suspect it's just one set, redressed multiple times. The sets reminded me of my school drama studio I attended as a teen in the mid/late 80s.

The VFX are wonderfully abysmal. I suspect most of the budget was for Mr York's fee, and the rest well, what you see is what you get.

Having said all this, I did manage to make it all the way through. But then again, I'm a middle-aged bachelor with plenty of spare time on my hands. Having said that, I won't be watching it a second time.

Okay, I've seen worse. Much worse. First of all, this movie is not full of bad CG. It's full of bad model special effects. Second, with the exception of Michael York the acting is meh (I've seen equivalent talent on Babylon 5 and that show is still amazing). Third, at its heart there is a good story, unfortunately clouded by cheezey lines and an even cheezier hero.

However...

With better dialogue, better actors, and better special effects this movie could be something special. All it needs is a remake by someone who understands how to make a suspense film.

Add together no script, no plot, no acting, no make-up and 8th grade TV class special effects and soon you have a Sci-Fi sleeping pill that would knock out Darth Vader. Set in the human geno future, Dark Planet concerns the quest of two human genes species attempting to claim the last piece of unpolluted solar Real Estate. For some unknown reason the script says the two warring side must accomplish this task together with one side furnishing the ship and the other a Captain. Throw in a double cross, some hidden soldiers, a couple of shoot-em-ups and you'll be asleep in no time. This movie comes complete with a James Mason look-a-like Captain, advanced humans with skin problems, left over Storm Troopers from Stars Wars and lots of pancake makeup. I couldn't decide what was worse the acting, make-up or special effects.

Two thumbs down on this one.

This one felt like they tried to make a STAR WARS-style outer space adventure on the tiniest of budgets. Thus the entire running time is made up of actors' faces shot in close-up in a darkened room. Michael York and Ed O'Ross are the old-timers propping up the cast and York gets undue prominence here. The plot is negligable, the script awful, the FX and action non-existent, so you have to have a high tolerance to even sit through this one.