Cargo

Switzerland's first attempt at sci-fi, and Ivan Engler's first feature film, Cargo harks back to numerous icons of science fiction cinema – everything from The Thing to The Matrix, and, most notably, Ridley Scott's Alien. It belongs to that particular breed of dystopian science fiction – where the world is ruined and the human race is living on borrowed time.

Cargo is a competent sci-fi, but it's nothing special. The first half is effectively tense and engaging, but it loses its way towards the end. Visually stunning considering the budget, but unfortunately, it's nowhere near original or creative enough to be considered a particularly revolutionary sci-fi film. SSP

A clichéd space science fiction movie with a mediocre story, lacking any surprises, and certainly suffering from some plot holes. However. The imagery is quite beautiful, the actors aren't bad, and the simple, unoriginal story is nicely told. So, it's a shame that these people, although they are obviously capable of making a film that is technically nearly faultless on a low budget, couldn't come up with a better, more interesting story to tell. I really liked the pacing of "Cargo", the certain calmness in the unfolding of events, a rather dreamlike, slow but unstoppable progression. If only this polished shell of a movie were a little bit more than this, a mere shell! Sadly, it isn't. Still, let's hope that this wasn't the last science fiction effort of directors Engler and Etter; I would very much like to see them adapting a better story.

I've watched this in the English dubbed version. It was horrible. The voice actors had no emotion in their voice which made the movie very dull and drawn out. In the English version, the character development was zilch. Be ware of the captioning as well - things like "enjoyable" in the audio become "unpleasant" (so the complete opposite of what the character is saying) in the captioning. You aren't drawn to the characters so you don't really care what happens to them.

The plot was okay but in no means fantastic. If you enjoyed movies like The Matrix and Sunshine (though without the science background in Sunshine) you might enjoy Cargo. Just make sure you watch it in the original German!

Cargo is dazzling, mystifying, sometimes scary, and is able to manipulate a rather familiar plot to seem less familiar. That last one however, is just as much a weakness as it is a strength. The film's problems are not on the screen, but on the pages.

Cargo contains a weighty story line, with questionable focus and a lack of coherency. There are also places where the movie feels draggy and repetitive. Characterization gets off the ground but not quite to the degree of emotion that was probably intended.

Anyone who sees Cargo is gonna wish they had seen it in theatres. Its greatest achievement is photography. I liked Cargo for its mystique and stylistic choices, but the writing and construction need a tune up. Its facade is perfect but its soul is murky, and its story is disoriented which does not allow us to appreciate Cargo to the full.

Rented this from blockbuster and just saw it. The movie has a good premise, and even some original ideas; I certainly had guesses as to where the plot was going, but I was pleasantly surprised up till near the end -- the director/writer didn't take the easy way and do something similar to Sunshine, for example.

The visuals are good to great, especially considering the low budget for the movie. The acting, in my opinion, was quite fine and even pretty good -- though characters started getting less believable near the end, as did the premise.

Hopefully the director/writer will continue to do more science fiction flicks and improve on his technique!