The Bottom Line
Pros
- Decent acting
- Makes the most of the budget
- Short and to the point
Cons
- Low budget
- Cliched story elements
- Uneven special effects
Description
- Starring Mike Mitchell, Patrick Wight, Scott Ironside, Shawn Paul Hastings, Steve Tomas, Tim Branston, Ashley Branston
- Directed by Mark Stirton
- Rated R
- DVD Release Date: June 10, 2008
Guide Review - 'The Planet' DVD Review
The Movie
It takes a lot of guts to make a special effects-heavy sci fi/horror movie on a shoestring budget, but that's exactly what writer-direct Mark Stirton does with The Planet. And, despite the "shoestringiest" of budgets, he does an admirable job of crafting a futuristic environment on an alien planet -- all in Scotland, of all places.
In the distant future, a crew of Scottish mercenaries aboard a space ship (sadly, none of whom utters, "I've given her all she's got, cap'n!") comes under attack and is forced to crash land on an uncharted desert planet. Only then does the captain bother to tell them that they were carrying a crazy doomsday cult terrorist, who now seems to have escaped. As if that weren't bad enough, the planet is occupied by invisible beings that are impervious to their futuristic weaponry. It seems the planet holds some dark, ancient secrets, and their landing there might not have been a coincidence after all.
You almost have to judge a movie like The Planet on a different scale from a big Hollywood production like Pitch Black (with which it shares several similarities). No, it's not a particularly good film, and the computer graphics sometimes resemble those terrible video game design school commercials, but overall, it makes the most of what it has.
OK, maybe not "the most" -- the story drags out a string of clichés from movies like Pitch Black, Aliens and Mission to Mars (Why?!?) -- but the acting is solid, and there's a grittiness to the direction that proves effective in scenes like the crash landing. Plus, by making the aliens translucent shadows, the computer effects don't have to be great to work. Perhaps best of all, The Planet is barely 70 minutes long, so it doesn't stick around long enough to inflict much damage.
The DVD
Special features include a "making of" feature and cast biographies.
Movie: C
DVD: D+
