User reviews

I am willing to tolerate almost anything in a Sci-Fi movie, but this was almost intolerable. While a few of the special effects are very cool (landscapes) this is no 'battlespace' rather a disjointed weird mother/daughter relationship with sci-fi concepts thrown in. The acting (wooden), framing and shooting (kindergarten film school) and with "hand-to-hand" combat scenes funnier than any Hong Kong chopsocky movie, this film bores. The plot line is convoluted and the devices used to move the plot along (narrator), unexplained scene jumps and plenty of deus ex machina reinforce the idea that writer cum director is not a good idea. Save your love of Sci-Fi for something else instead of losing a bit of it here.

Beyond boring. 80% of this movie, shot on dirt cheap miniDV and 'film-looked' in post, shows a lone heroine traversing a desert. THAT'S IT. Scenes that could've been done in 45 seconds, are stretched out to 45 minutes.

The costumes are cheap looking. Acting is non-existent. These were favors (or blackmail) by the cast, and nothing more.

The CGI visual are horrendously bad, even by amateur standards. This smacks more of an 8th grader's attempt at video game cutscenes than a low-budget feature.

This thing is so bad, even the nerd-run series 'Hidden Frontier' looks and plays better.

The look of the movie is horrible. Acting is nil. Visuals are shockingly bad. The only saving grace is the clear audio.

Spare yourself 90 minutes of agony. AVOID.

I made it through half of this, but was not enough of a masochist to see it all. The first half of the film had next to no dialog ! Almost everything was voice over commentary to carry the story. The scriptwriter forgot that sometimes less is more and tried to explain several millennium of detailed history in the voice over. At the same time he forgot to do any character development. Most science fiction fans don't require huge amounts of character development, but it would be nice to know why the two main characters who survived the destruction of the space fleet together ended up fighting each other.

There are some good things going on in the film. The soundtrack was well done. Some of the computer generated graphics are very good, but others were just mediocre.

OK, please believe me when I say that this is a terrible, terrible, sci-fi movie. Its done so poorly that much of the film plays out as unintentional surrealism and its absolutely a 100% waste of time. Awful, but somehow also deeply unfunny. I watched this as a double feature with "Recon 2020: The Caprini Massacre" and although "Battlespace" WAS an incredibly superior film, that's not saying much. The plot of "Battlespace" is so completely convoluted that its impossible to follow. The narration is cryptic, often nonsensical, seemingly endless, and thoroughly exhausting. Literally half the film is duplicative scenes of the female lead, who looks like Brian Bosworth, walking through the desert. The movie actually starts out pretty cool, but then nosedives into pooptown and somehow continues to deteriorate, minute by minute. Absolutely horrible and truly an Absurdist Endurance Test. Zero stars. ---|--- Reviews by Flak Magnet

I'd never heard of zero budget "auteur" Neil Johnson before seeing "Battlespace" on DVD at Hollywood Video. A few minutes into the movie I realize this isn't a bad thing. Like many straight to video Sci-Fi movies, this is a film dominated largely by overused bad special effects and a constant parade of pretentious sci-fi concepts that fail to create a story.

Viewers are tortured with a religious sounding text introduction, then a spoken introduction followed by a narration by the main character's daughter. To me this seemed like a smoke screen to mask a film with militantly ugly visuals and zero character emphasis. Some people on here seem all too ready to take this film seriously and swallowed it's seemingly new age messages hook line and sinker. These favorable reviews must come from the same kind of people who can delude themselves into thinking that things like "Battlefield Earth" was a brilliant movie, or that Shasta is just as good as Coke.

Those who were lured in by the cheesy cover art can look forward to lousy acting (in small doses, spaced with long blocks of people not talking), rotten computer animated effects (in extra large doses), and irritating talking computers. What you won't get is excitement, emotional stimulation, memorable dialogue, or a good story.

"Battlespace" is impenetrable bull and the constant irritant of the narration proves it. Real science fiction, hell, real film-making, is about characters and their dialogue, not special effects and dull predictions. This is right down there with similar direct to video sci-fi like "Cl.One" and "Recon 2022". If the boredom of "Strange Horizons" and "Alien Visitor" is something you seek out, by all means, watch the crap out of this. If you enjoy good storytelling and hate fake lens flares, you're better off with a real movie.

Regardless of how "bored" some (probably adolescent) viewers may become (forced to maintain their attention span over vast minutes of time on something other than sex, car chases and dripping blood), this is obviously a great movie. At least for the rest of us.

The depth of this film comes apparent upon the second and third viewing of this film. It is rich in historical allegory and establishes a developed and complex universe, normally reserved for bigger budget classic films.

The downside of this is of course the budget. It was made on a shoestring, and this shows in places, but the quality of the production is still reasonable, regardless. The other downside is the way this film is presented. In full-screen? Why on Earth would you release such a thing in full-screen format. What stupidity. It was shot in widescreen, so why release a sub- standard format.

The film tackles the unique issue of memory downloads and the intrinsic problems on how this will affect future society. The issues on human modifications may seem trite in today's society, but one day, these will become serious issues. The film touches on something that may one day become commonplace.

Battlespace (not the best descriptive name for the film) is not suitable for those expecting the latest summer popcorn film, but if you have a true interest in future science, this may be stimulating.

Most criticisms posted about Battlespace center on poor special effects, low budget,lack of forceful acting, you know, the usual. I don't think great special effects helped AVATAR that much. I don't think the Star Trek movies were well acted, and high budget financing didn't rescue Waterworld. So let's tell you what I liked about Battlespace.

This film has a lot of positives. I viewed the acting as subtle - facial expressions and good camera-work went a long way to create mood and emotion. Effective. 6 out of 10.

Special effects weren't bad at all, but they were of mixed styles so somewhat inconsistent to the viewer. Some of the painted planet sequences were as good as I've ever seen. Best of all, the special effects conveyed understanding - they weren't simply eye candy, but useful for plot delineation. 7.5 out of 10

The story, pacing and characterizations were the weaknesses of Battlespace. Just another story of a vulnerable lady out to save the universe, after being unable to manage her own life and affairs. Our heroine, actress Eve Connelly, who was attractive and had expressive facials, was supposed to be a superhero, a genetically enhanced Valkerie, but she still threw a rock like a 10th grade schoolgirl. She simply didn't have the nastiness and physical presence necessary for her role. That being said, in spite of rather slow pacing, I was always wondering what was going to happen next, and at no time did I wish the main protagonist dead, as I often do in sci-fi or horror film. She worked on a human level, so okay here. For story, characterizations and pacing, a solid 3 of 10.

Best of all, though, was the music. Just excellent. A symphonic score composed and conducted by Aussie superstar Owen Arnold, who is the equal of Brian May and as good as anything Hollywood has to offer. I say this as a professional violinist, composer and conductor myself. This guy is good, and worth watching the movie for. 8.5 out of 10 here, and I simply won't give out 9's or 10's to anything but Le Nozze De Figaro or Parsifal.

Check the flick out. You'll have seen lots worse.

Despite this movie is made by another mockbusting company, compared to many of those abominations is competently made although it has also a confusing plot.

A woman mercenary ends up stranded in an unhospital planet and tries to survive; in the meanwhile she discovers there is a weapon of mass destruction and she has only 48 hours left for avoiding the explosion. Will she succedd? See the movie.

The cinematography at times looks very cheap, and the editing from time to time looks very jumpy and shoddy. The acting is ok at best, with the actress that plays the colonel (Eve Connelly) that at least tries with the material given. And it has also good sets from beginning to end. This is the reason why I score it a 4 despite its flaws. I can't see myself giving a 1 to a movie with ok acting and nice sets. It deserves at least few other points just for these elements.

While I understand that directors, foley artists and sound editors want to make scifi and military communications between ships sound authentic, most of the communication was so garbled and laced with special effects that you couldn't understand what actors and crew members were saying to each other.

I'm not talking about background chatter, etc. I'm talking about communication that we are clearly supposed to hear and understand as an audience. If you have to keep rewinding a movie to try and understand what the cast is saying, it's a failure.

I also agree with others that the acting was wooden. The Narration by the daughter and line delivery of her mother almost put me to sleep.

Just before anybody gets defensive, it is not as if I make a living out of criticising low-budget movies(I'm really a music student who only has enough money to pay rent and to do a £15-20 weekly shop for three months worth with the occasional trip to the cinema). I have seen movies that are actually watchable even with the low budget. Battlespace is far from watchable, in fact while far from the worst movie I've ever seen it is so bad that are this tempted to give up half-way through. The only good thing about Battlespace was the soundtrack, which I only found decent. Otherwise this is an example of a truly inept movie in every other department. Battlespace looks incredibly cheap, the special effects are really slipshod, the settings and costumes drab and completely uninteresting and bacon-slicer-like editing. For all its cheapness though, the visuals aren't actually the worst asset about Battlespace. The narration and the story are. The narration is thoroughly exhausting in alternative to interesting and it just rambles on and on and on that you are actually begging(inside your head and out loud) for it to shut up. It often is completely irrelevant. The story is interminably dull, the first half literally doesn't move so I'm not surprised people bailed out(though I always think that you shouldn't judge a movie unless you see the whole thing), and needlessly convoluted, almost feeling like five or six completely different movies. There are action sequences here and there but poorly shot and choreographed by someone who is either inexperienced or doesn't have a clue what choreography is. The characters are aimless and just infuriate you, the direction is leaden with no life whatsoever and the acting consists of everybody literally sleepwalking through their roles. Overall, an inept movie all round, don't waste your time. 1/10 for the soundtrack only. Bethany Cox

I would normally give this 8 stars, but I am giving it a ten to counteract the strange reviews this film is getting. Honestly, I got a lot from this film. The depth of universe created here rivals much bigger films. The film is very low on dialogue, and that's the whole point. A story is told without words, but shown with great complexity through the lead character's, Mara's actions. When you watch the film, you walk the journey she walks. You feel pain when she feels pain, you cry when she cries. As a woman who served briefly in the military, I strongly connected with Mara's plight, and the loneliness of being away from your loved ones. I feel Battlespace will survive the test of time and lone day become a B-movie classic. A lot of people hated 2001 for similar reasons, but now it is remembered. Please Hollywood, make more movies like this

Just finished watching this movie and after seeing the severe lack of good reviews, felt compelled to chime in with my personal review. I generally ignore ANY negative reviews I find for a movie, preferring instead to read whatever positive things people have to say. There's always SOMEONE whining about something in a movie, but perhaps they were in a cranky mood or (as another reviewer theorized) they had a personal gripe with the director or a cast member. However, if someone actually takes the time to write a POSITIVE review, I can be pretty sure that they genuinely liked it. :)

Anyway, about this film... no, it's not perfect. But it's definitely enjoyable, entertaining; a good solid diversion. HIGHLY reminiscent of TITAN AE, this flick had an extremely enjoyable mythology as a back-story that is immediately revealed at the start of the film. The animation however is both a step up and a step down from that of TITAN AE. This animation is done is a much more realistic style vaguely similar to FINAL FANTASY: THE SPIRITS WITHIN but even more realistic (or perhaps a half step below the animation in IMMORTAL (AD VITAM), which is one of my favorite animated sci-fi flicks of recent years. Strangely, it seems maybe they were hampered by budgetary constraints (or maybe they didn't notice it?) because even though the STATIC images were extremely well-designed, the battle sequences seemed a bit disjointed or a bit out-of-kilter.

The story also wasn't perfect but I wasn't looking for perfection, just a nice flick to watch during a boring evening. On that count, it definitely satisfied. Story-wise, it also reminded me a bit of LOST IN SPACE, as well as having a touch of CONTACT and STARGATE mixed in. Yep, as I said, this isn't a perfect film, but it has a moderately satisfying story, solid voice acting, and fairly enjoyable animation. Perfection? NO... but definitely a solid flick.