chillgreg

Overall, quite disappointing. Wooden acting and a shallow, often dopey script take the shine off the excitement I felt at this remake of one of my favourite childhood TV series.

The actors seem to be visibly struggling to find chemistry and momentum as well; perhaps the patchy writing and direction is at much at fault too.

Of course the special effects were superb as expected, and perhaps it's saving grace was The Robot, who's re-imagining was quite exceptional. It's non entirely unenjoyable, but when you find yourself fast-forwarding boring, repetitive daytime TV soap-opera like scenes, cringing at wooden dialog, and sighing at the increasingly predicable plotlines unfolding, it pales in comparison to say Altered Carbon.

Sadly this is a missed opportunity for what could have been a much darker, more character driven space-drama.

Absolutely incredible. A slow start opens to a sprawling roller-coaster of emotional introspection, and the penultimate thundering crescendo with an immensely satisfying conclusion left me sitting numb after the final credits rolled.

A barely-adequate comparison would be The Matrix + The Fifth Element + Tarantino. On steroids. Episode 7 by itself, at 66 minutes, is better than most full-feature sci-fi movies.

The story is intriguing, and while perhaps not totally original, is a deft amalgamation of sci-fi, murder-mystery, and action-thriller (with some well-executed plot twists). Most importantly, it doesn't spoon-feed the viewer; one has to actually think about it, but that only adds to the enjoyment of the episodic structure.

Thanks to the beguiling performances from the stellar cast, who's passion and commitment to the script was evident, combined with a beautiful soundtrack, mesmerising cinematography, and spectacular special effects, Netflix hit this adaptation of the award-winning novel out of the park.

Don't miss this one.

From the first scene to the closing dialog, this was just plain B-grade rubbish.

Amateur acting with wooden delivery, clichéd casting, tied together with woeful scriptwriting.

The premise and sets are OK, but only just.

Feeling like a very poor cousin to Firefly, why on earth this made it to production is a mystery.

While other quality shows are regularly dropped due to time slot mismanagement and lack of marketing, droll second-rate tripe like this attempts to latch onto the ever ready market for sci-fi.

The money this cost to make would have gone well towards an extra season of The Following or something much more worthwhile.

Avoid.

Update 20/7/15 Ignore the overall rating of 7.5. This has obviously been padded by studio shills.