The Osiris Child

Being a devout science fiction fan I've developed a philosophy: "We have to suffer for our sci-fi." Meaning that until recently there have been so few choices in sci-fi and even though most low budget attempts are mediocre and cheesy, we suffer through them anyway because we love the genre.

Every now and then a low budget indie comes along that surprises us by being even better than most high budget kin."Time Lapse," "John Dies in the End"and "Revolt" are prime examples of these overachievers. "Science Fiction Volume One: The Osiris Child" is also in this category.

Set in the future, the story of SFVOOC, (abbreviated title)is about a disgraced former space pilot who sets off on a barren planet with a convict whose escaped the prison from hell in a race against time to save the pilot's twelve year old daughter -- a cross between "The Road Warrior" and "Alien." It's a gritty Aussie film with few pretensions a good story and good acting. Released around the same time as "Alien Covenant," it is head and shoulders above Ridley Scott's ponderous, idiotic remake of his sci fi classic. I would go so far as to recommend skipping AC and watch SFVOOC instead. You'll have a lot more fun and be far less annoyed.

SFVOOC is not a perfect film like "Ex-Machina" but an enjoyable effort worthy of our time.

Thats not to say that this is a terrible film, far from it. The productions values were good and the acting was pretty good also.

The problem here is the script and pacing as well as some editing. Its clunky and Non Linear and is broken up into chapters.

The problem with this is that none of the reveals in the chapters, in the form of flashbacks tell us anything really interesting, they work more as a conduit for understanding the next scene/chapter.

The film also seems to take itself way too seriously with hammy dialogue and what i call Hollywood paint by number exposition.

There could have been real mystery here but instead they reveal this to us, the viewer within the first 5 minutes. So we have no mystery or suspense.

What about action ?? Well there is very little of that either, what little there is, was however done quite well but nothing very unique or with a wow factor.

Humour or dark humour was virtually non existent.

The whole wasteland environment was vaguely pushed upon but with not enough meat on the bones for it to really set the scene.

What your left with here is a quite well produced, quite well acted, average script with average sfx and a fairly bland story with an underwhelming ending.

It would be interesting to see the people who made this do something with a better script and story and something a bit less generic and average.

Overall you have a pretty forgettable sci fi film which is a shame as you can see the effort put into the project.

For some this may have bitten more than it can chew. Having said that, I don't think it's a bad thing to dream big rather than to settle on something small from the beginning. The ending is a bit ... well ominous, but then I have no idea how this fairs to the book(s) this is obviously based on.

It has some quality actors in it too and the action and set pieces are very well thought of. Still this will not become a Science Fiction classic as far as I can tell. But it is a decent effort and has some very interesting ideas ... also the makeup and other practical effects are really well done.

I was really astonished with the innovation and originality this movie brought... It has been years since we last saw an attempt like that, movies tend to become a generic marketing mess to please the corporate overlords with bombarding the same... movie.. in a different package... Osiris Child begs to differ.. and it does it in a very good way! No product placements, no generic plot, no pseudo realism (an other demand of the marketing overlords) it's like a 21st century Star Wars without having anything to do with Start Wars other than the core elements that made those movies great in their genre...

Pure fantasy not filtered out by PC think tanks and survey polls, nice action, imaginative plot and very nice overall scenery, costumes cast and a, very carefully selected, colorful pallet.

The only downside is that they gave in on one of the corporate cravings and squished this great movie into 90 minutes of film.. The plot deserved to be easily a 2 hour one if not a 3 hour one without stressing the audience...

This is the only reason I gave this movie 7/10 instead of 10/10! The what ever minor issues it might have are surely forgiven and ignored for this movie is a rare gem appearing after so many years of stagnation and Hollywood should get a lesson or two by Shane Abbess' action science-fictional masterpiece!

EDIT: I lowered my rating to 6/10 because I was about 20 minutes before the movie finish while writing this review... Nothing changed dramatically its only what I mentioned in my last paragraph this movie should have more time for the plot to "stretch its legs" develop the characters a little more and for us the audience to get into this new world deeper than we did.

Unfortunately, I presume in order to put an end within 90 minutes, they wrapped the last scenes in haste and put some clichés in mix too and "that's all she wrote"... Still one of the best Sci-Fi movies I watched the last couple of years if not even more.. If it only could last longer...

An interesting film from start to finish, far more polished a presentation than the budget would suggest. It's a mixture of previous film styles like Star Wars, Alien and Mad Max but none the worse for that with a good well paced story line.

No one will be up for an Oscar but the standard of acting was really good with well filled out characters that you actually grew to care about or dislike!.Throw in some good special effects and photography together with a quality sound track and you've got a good film to watch. The only drawback for me was the last part of the film where it seemed an hours worth of story had been condensed into 30 minutes. It may be the film was cut to fit a 90 minute time span rather than 100 to 120 minutes but it seemed very choppy at the end.

Any one interested in Sci Fi should find this an excellent afternoons entertainment.