The Titan

I was so intrigued to watch this movie, the trailer I saw made the film look awesome. The first twenty minutes or so I really enjoyed. I got into it immediately, the acting was really rather good, the story very interesting, but something seems to change, it's almost as if they switched directors or writers, as the film just turns into a real mess, it was hard to follow, almost every character was hard to like, and you find yourself asking 'what's the point.'

I'll applaud the acting, and special effects, the latter in particular were great, but overall there was just something about it that I didn't like, if I'm honest I was bored.

What was he going to do on his own on that planet?

Mehhh. 4/10

Not sure why this is getting a '1' from some reviewers... It can't be as god-awful as some films that truly deserve a very poor rating. Sure, it's no Godfather, but it has some merit. I'm thinking the worst '1' reviews may be from 15 year-olds expecting perhaps a lot of action (which this does not), or a lot of Sci-Fi CGI effects (some, but not a lot..).

At best, it's a reasonably entertaining view on what it would be like if we had to make plans to eventually leave the planet. There's some nice, slick futuristic settings as well. At worst, there's little 'action' or 'space action' and the like, as it all takes place on earth (mostly). This is high praise from me, as I love a good 'space' & 'space travel' Sci-Fi flick!

It definitely doesn't deserve a '1' (or a '3' or '4' for that matter) in my opinion. They make a decent effort at plot - though to be sure, there are a few spots where you have to suspend disbelief... The sets look authentic and look realistic & have a great look & good production value.

It's no 'Gataca' or 'Blade Runner' by any stretch, but it was reasonably entertaining & held my interest enough to watch it through.

So yes, many of its story elements have been done to death. Our Earth is no longer inhabitable because of a nuclear war, we look to the stars for a new planet to settle and make a new world, experimenting and genetically modifying humans to make a super-human, only to have it go wrong. But even though its been done to death, it wasn't necessarily bad, I found it to be very averagely done and honestly could have been and often has been done much worse. So while I wasn't enthralled by the story, it also wasn't a mess like many other films that use the same plot points, the story points were relatively well presented and I can only really describe it as average. Pretty much what you saw in the trailer is what this film is all about, not many alterations on the basic plot points.

Everything else was admittedly average but not bad. I like the cinematography, which I found to be the best part of the film, the camera use and the color scheme were at least visually pleasing. The acting was also very average, though the film has many good actors, their performances were not their best, but also couldn't be considered their worst, as I said, very average. The writing wasn't anything to be amazed about, dialog wasn't very engaging but that might be because I've seen many movies that have the same plot points as I mentioned above. So all in all a very average film, didn't find it bad even though the many plot points have been done to death. I would only really recommend this film if you have nothing better to watch.

*Spoiler alert*

Actually, there isn't really much to spoil. This egg that netflix has lain, was spoiled from the get go. Derivative to the point of provoking fast forward, and this is coming from a long time sci-fi buff that's seen it all; Even I was bored enough to wish I was watching the other Titan. You remember....Titan AE, the cartoon? The casting of the action veteran, Sam Worthington, though not a bad choice for nearly any other movie, provided more of a distraction here, than attraction, given the voluminous invitations for comparison to his role in Avatar.

Speaking of comparison, and there are many valid ones that one may make, I found the episode: "Afterlife", from the Outer Limits Series, in which an ex soldier is given the choice of execution, or participating in an Alien DNA mutation experiment, to be more inspired and engaging.

There just isn't much here, and what there is, simply mashes all the wrong buttons. Including the 'eject' button. On a scale of 1 to...would you rather see it again, or go wingsuiting without a wingsuit....

I give it a solid 4 out of 10.

In the near future, the world is overcrowded and its resources are dwindling. A project headed by Professor Martin Collingwood (Tom Wilkinson) proposes to populate the Saturn moon Titan with genetically altered humans. Lieutenant Rick Janssen (Sam Worthington) has brought his wife Abigail (Taylor Schilling) and son Lucas. As the volunteers get altered, some are dying while others are showing volatile signs.

Nothing happens for too long in this movie. Nothing ever happens behind Worthington's dead eyes. This could be a body horror but it does not do that. It really doesn't do much. I'm not a Worthington fan but I thought maybe Manhunt: Unabomber had given him new acting life. Sadly, this movie asks nothing of him and he gives them nothing. After his transformation, his alien face turns blank which is just as well. The emotional climax has no emotional content for him. This is a blank.