Evengyny
Thanks for the memories!
Intcatinfo
A Masterpiece!
Curapedi
I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.
trogwolf
Dark Planet is a post apocalyptic morality play, centered around the thesis, "robots don't make good humans". If you enjoyed Firefly and Serenity as much as I did, there is a good chance you will enjoy Dark Planet. I never heard of a theater release. I discovered it on the shelf of a video rental store. I watch it as often as I watch my other favorites: Blade Runner, Highlander, Serenity, Predator, Excalibur, Soldier and Chronicles of Riddick.If you are a fan of these films, it is hard for me to imagine you not liking Dark Planet.I think Dark Planet is a really great film. In fact, I wonder if it could be successfully presented on stage. The small cast makes it well suited to such a venue. I read some of these reviews and I wonder what film they were watching.
Neilos
I spotted this in a £1 shop, and figured any movie for £1 is a good deal. How wrong I was.The first scenes of this visual monstrosity contained the worst space battle I have ever seen. The movements of the ships were quite literally worse than those on Red Dwarf, a British sitcom with intentionally bad space animation. This set the scene for the rest of the film.The script was the sort which leaves one torn between writhing in agony and collapsing in side-splitting laughter, and though delivered by the cast to the best of their ability, you've got to ask how on Earth they were persuaded to sign up to this.Dark is an appropriate title - now we all know that an eerie space ship on a dangerous mission is dark on the inside. Alien did dark space ships well. Dark Planet did not. Even with all the lights off the curtains drawn, I struggled to make out who was who, what they were doing, why they were doing it.And to top it all off, the plot is so rotten it could well have been dead for 20 years, and no one told the writers. The predictability is on a par with tossing a two-headed coin and trying to guess the outcome.Awful, awful, awful. I might actually go and ask for my £1 back.
mfisher452
I'm a sucker for space movies, but even before this one started, I knew it would be a bomb because the "Coming Attractions" on this rented video were themselves so awful. I saw this film in a weekend-long adventure in masochism that included "Ghosts of Mars," "In the Dead of Space" and "Trancers.""Dark Planet" is appropriately named: Everything in this film is dark, presumably to save money on sets. Or maybe in the 26th century, people have sharper vision. Or maybe they're trying to save power, like the Albertson's supermarket near my house that has a big sign on the door saying they have turned down the lights to save electricity. Any crew member of the starship Scylla better have night-vision goggles, otherwise they will be stubbing their toes in the subfusc gloom.The special effects for this 1996 film were not just dumbfoundingly amateurish, they were so cartoonish they reminded me of Terry Gilliam's animation style. Alas, Gilliam was not around to give the effects sequences a Pythonesque breath of fresh air. It wouldn't have fit the film but anything would have been an improvement. Add to that the inexplicable plot and you have all the ingredients for a real stinker. Every once in a while the script almost but not quite rises to an engaging level, but then sinks into banal absurdity again.The cast is a mix of well-knowns, lesser-knowns and unknowns. You wonder how the bigger names got suckered into this turkey: Were they hard up for dough? Did they have nothing else to do that weekend? Watch Oxford graduate and Shakespearean actor Michael York in this and one thinks, 'Oh, how the mighty have fallen!' Harley Jane Kozak radiates beauty and intelligence even in this dog of a movie; a look at her disappointing filmography suggests that she has not been well used in Hollywood. Maybe the nickname Harley (apparently from the motorcycle) fools some people into thinking she's a guy or maybe they think she's a Hell's Angel chick. Paul Mercurio seems to speak American most of the time---or else someone else is dubbing his lines---and then every now and then his native Australian slips through. I guess the filmmakers were too sloppy, too cheap or too lazy to re-loop those lines.In conclusion: If you have a yen for a really bad movie some weekend, skip this one and rent something truly memorable, such as 'Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.'
An Ceann
I'm only writing this as a warning - save your time and your money this is a really terrible film. I will watch almost any sci-fi but this was torture to sit through until the end! I had to wait a week before writing this wee comment as before now it I am not sure I could have remained rational thinking about the rubbish I paid to see(only on video but it still hurts!)
