I was pleasantly surprised by this entertaining B-movie which, while hideously clichéd, still manages to deliver the goods in terms of suspense. It's a fast-paced action adventure which flies by while you're watching. Okay so the plot is really just a jumble of bits from THE TERMINATOR and ALIENS to STAR TREK and HARDWARE plus more than a nod to last year's DEEP RISING, but it's given a fresh perspective via some expensive-looking sets and a glossy sheen.
I for one always enjoy these "people wandering through dark corridors getting picked off one by one" sorts of films, especially when the monsters are good, and they're very good in this film. Before they really appear the first half builds up some real suspense and atmosphere as Donald Sutherland and his crew discover an abandoned ship, floating in a mist cloud Mary Celeste-style. The producers gathered together a fun bunch of actors and actresses to play the B-movie types who get picked off one by one.
Firstly we have Jamie Lee Curtis as the tough heroine who (surprise, surprise) turns out to be one of the sole survivors - trust me, I'm not ruining anything here. Curtis looks pretty old in this film but turns in an adequate performance. William Baldwin is the hero of the group, always going on ahead and shooting first. He's fine. Donald Sutherland also turns up, surprisingly, and even more surprisingly gives a pretty awful performance. For a start he's supposed to be Irish but he can't do an Irish accent, and also he gives a very hammy performance as the drunk captain. Joanna Pacula also appears and strangely doesn't seem to have aged at all in ten years - she looks as good as she ever did.
I liked the way that the mechanical monsters in this film started off small and gradually grew bigger and bigger. The first time we see them is when they are little insect like robotic things, scuttling about and amassing components to build bigger and better things. After some disturbing scenes in the ship's hold, androids start to appear, the dead flesh having been recycled and used a new - these androids look very good, gory and gruesome and quite frightening too. From then on the giant robots keep getting bigger and bigger until this gigantic machine appears at the end to attack the few survivors. This big beastie is absolutely phenomenal, the CGI animation has never looked better! As well as the above average special effects, we also get some effectively gruesome moments in which killed crew members turn up as automatons. They're pretty sick looking and extremely cool. There is also some brief gore, one poor guy has a hole punched through his body! The requisite number of shells and bombs are also spent during the film's running time - it's obvious where the budget was spent, on visual spectacle, just as I like to see. If you're a fan of waterlogged chillers in the mould of DEEP STAR SIX and LEVIATHAN, then by all means watch this entertaining B-movie - it's a lot better than its reputation would have you imagine.
I for one always enjoy these "people wandering through dark corridors getting picked off one by one" sorts of films, especially when the monsters are good, and they're very good in this film. Before they really appear the first half builds up some real suspense and atmosphere as Donald Sutherland and his crew discover an abandoned ship, floating in a mist cloud Mary Celeste-style. The producers gathered together a fun bunch of actors and actresses to play the B-movie types who get picked off one by one.
Firstly we have Jamie Lee Curtis as the tough heroine who (surprise, surprise) turns out to be one of the sole survivors - trust me, I'm not ruining anything here. Curtis looks pretty old in this film but turns in an adequate performance. William Baldwin is the hero of the group, always going on ahead and shooting first. He's fine. Donald Sutherland also turns up, surprisingly, and even more surprisingly gives a pretty awful performance. For a start he's supposed to be Irish but he can't do an Irish accent, and also he gives a very hammy performance as the drunk captain. Joanna Pacula also appears and strangely doesn't seem to have aged at all in ten years - she looks as good as she ever did.
I liked the way that the mechanical monsters in this film started off small and gradually grew bigger and bigger. The first time we see them is when they are little insect like robotic things, scuttling about and amassing components to build bigger and better things. After some disturbing scenes in the ship's hold, androids start to appear, the dead flesh having been recycled and used a new - these androids look very good, gory and gruesome and quite frightening too. From then on the giant robots keep getting bigger and bigger until this gigantic machine appears at the end to attack the few survivors. This big beastie is absolutely phenomenal, the CGI animation has never looked better! As well as the above average special effects, we also get some effectively gruesome moments in which killed crew members turn up as automatons. They're pretty sick looking and extremely cool. There is also some brief gore, one poor guy has a hole punched through his body! The requisite number of shells and bombs are also spent during the film's running time - it's obvious where the budget was spent, on visual spectacle, just as I like to see. If you're a fan of waterlogged chillers in the mould of DEEP STAR SIX and LEVIATHAN, then by all means watch this entertaining B-movie - it's a lot better than its reputation would have you imagine.