Vesper

Vesper is a very special film. The sort of sci-fi you rarely see - one with heart, meaning, social conscience and an important message about earths future wrapped in emotional drama, stunning visuals and originality aplenty.

At the centre is Vesper herself and the whole movie hinges on the shoulders of its thirteen year old star. Raffiella Chapman turns in a nuanced performance at once both the brave heroine and fragile child. It is so accomplished a performance it's hard to believe this young actor was indeed just thirteen at the time of filming.

There is a wonderful scene where Vesper forgets her adult responsibilities and howls like a wolf with all the vigour and lack of self consciousness of a child and it's both poignant and incredibly emotional. Moments like this might feel out of place to sci-fan fans used to the action obsessed Hollywood mainstay of the genre but it is these unusual touches that make this film so unique.

Eddie Marsan is wonderful as Vesper's sinister uncle and Richard Brake terrific as Vespers ailing father, his voice given life within a drone in yet another original touch.

I've never seen anything quite like Vesper and the incredible imagery and performances will stay with me a long time. If you like your sci-fi cerebral and challenging with superb characters and world building then this is a must watch. 10/10.

I'm really surprised that this film is not more well known even though I myself had never heard of it! It has a fascinating production design with many unusual, interesting, original and beautiful special effects. The entire film is well made with a very original vision and the lead actress, a young woman named Raffiella Chapman helps a lot with a very solid performance and the rest of the principle cast is fine. This apocalyptic tale also has a very good cinematography and is well directed. It does get a little lost in the latter half though I thought it ended on a strong as well as intriguing note.

In a bleak dystopian world, a thirteen year old girl must survive in a world where citadels containing powerful oligarchs live, controlling the seeds that provide food supplies for those struggling outside on the planet. A smart cookie, she has a number of special skills including an understanding of bio-hacking which she must make use of if she is to beat her power crazy uncle, the excellent Eddie Marsan, the oligarchs and keep her father, who operates through a floating android, alive.

Whilst it could be argued that this intelligent almost evangelical sci-fi thriller suffers slightly through lack of budget, it's effects are sparingly used and are all the more impressive because of it. The performances, particularly from the young girl, Raffiella Chapman are strong, but the most impressive element is the clever mix of intelligent and convincing sci-fi ideas. A wildly over the top Hollywood sci-fi epic remake will surely follow.

I don't want to spoil anything so I will not even mention anything negative.

I thought it was very good, visually, storytelling and sci-fi wise. The lead young actress did a fantastic job, as did the more supporting roles. I also got a very positive feeling of synergy from the movie Brazil. Not the story or plot but more the design of things.

Some reviews mentioned they wanted more of the world- or back-story. I thought it was about perfectly delivered. Sketched in enough that you can imagine and wonder about it but not heavy-handed.

Other mentioned it is slow and I could see ppl. Thinking that in some cases. However I did not think any of it was filler or just padding out for any reason. Every slow and artsy sort of shot tells you something about the story world. And was very pretty or at least carefully presented in disgusting detail.

Perfect? Nah - but yea it's well worth a watch, IMO.

Less is more with this one. Rather than bog it down with excessive CGI or overblown action sequences, the filmmakers slowed the pacing and gave us a more nuanced tale. And in my opinion, it works.

In a post-apocalyptic future, a gifted girl (Vesper) with a penchant for organic biochemistry learns to navigate the bleak landscape and cope with the even bleaker tendencies of humanity, until an accident presents her with an opportunity to escape her reality and flourish her talents.

Such as it is, Vesper had a lot of creative ideas and interesting story points. As expected, it's a pretty grim view of our future, but it was nice that the CGI was sparingly used, particularly in the spore and plant effects, and her bio-cybernetic floating dad-head. I also enjoyed the bit where Vesper learns of the now-extinct animals from today.

Decent acting, decent music, great cinematography, and interesting story. They lost me a little bit with the ending though. Symbolically, I guess I get it..? But it threw me a little, not sure I get why she'd do that

7/10, would maybe watch again.