WARNING - SPOILERS
Who on earth managed to talk Hoffman, Stone and Jackson into taking part in this dreadful hogwash? I can only assume the cheques were mighty indeed.
The story seems to be a clumsy mash-up of almost every sci-fi or horror film you can think of: Event Horizon, 2001, Andromida Strain, The Shining, The Abyss, Alien - even the TV series Red Dwarf (Back to Reality & Better Than Life) gets shoehorned in. The list just goes on and on. In fact, this film could have a decent second life as a board game. Contestants simply spot yet another cinematic reference to get their next roll of the dice.
The film's jarringly episodic editing and the lack of any coherent narrative flow makes me suspect a great deal of this clunker was left on the cutting room floor; and that, trust me, is a good thing. I just wish they'd left a great deal more of it there.
The plot is trite, the action is dull, the dialogue is dreadful, the characterisations are poor, the direction is ham-fisted and the entire thing is badly miscast. The cast seem to be improvising quite a bit, and although I have seen this work very well in other settings, I'm afraid here it just looked like a bad night at the your local amateur dramatic society.
And then, just when you think this film couldn't possibly get any worse - WARNING! MAJOR SPOILER ALERT! - they simply use their shiny new super powers to make everything OK. I mean, jeez, c'mon guys!
It's a dreadful clunker; it really is. Best avoided.
Who on earth managed to talk Hoffman, Stone and Jackson into taking part in this dreadful hogwash? I can only assume the cheques were mighty indeed.
The story seems to be a clumsy mash-up of almost every sci-fi or horror film you can think of: Event Horizon, 2001, Andromida Strain, The Shining, The Abyss, Alien - even the TV series Red Dwarf (Back to Reality & Better Than Life) gets shoehorned in. The list just goes on and on. In fact, this film could have a decent second life as a board game. Contestants simply spot yet another cinematic reference to get their next roll of the dice.
The film's jarringly episodic editing and the lack of any coherent narrative flow makes me suspect a great deal of this clunker was left on the cutting room floor; and that, trust me, is a good thing. I just wish they'd left a great deal more of it there.
The plot is trite, the action is dull, the dialogue is dreadful, the characterisations are poor, the direction is ham-fisted and the entire thing is badly miscast. The cast seem to be improvising quite a bit, and although I have seen this work very well in other settings, I'm afraid here it just looked like a bad night at the your local amateur dramatic society.
And then, just when you think this film couldn't possibly get any worse - WARNING! MAJOR SPOILER ALERT! - they simply use their shiny new super powers to make everything OK. I mean, jeez, c'mon guys!
It's a dreadful clunker; it really is. Best avoided.