A pair of astronauts, Payton (Dennis Quaid) and Bower (Ben Foster) wake from hibernation to find they are wrought with amnesia and their big ship is out of commission. Bower heads out to to recon the situation and finds creepy aliens are doing what creepy alien do -namely eating nameless astronaut guys in front of named astronaut guys. Of course there are the obligatory moments of peril as the aliens hunt down aforementioned nameless astro-fodder with the expected sanguinary results.

"Obligatory" and "expected" are two words that can be applied to most aspects of this film. There is precious little that is unique to this production. Overall, this is a patchwork of other films and stories all laced together into an unsatisfying whole. The average viewer will most likely have the sneaky suspicion they have seen this scene or that event before - this is because they have.

The film doesn't advance the genre and it doesn't offer an inventive script. If you are going to spend your time sitting in front of a sci-fi flick, I suggest going back to the basics (Alien, Stalker, The Lathe of Heaven, etc.) instead of wadding through this mish-mash of a genre rehash.




Related Reviews:
Ben Foster movies
X-Men: the Last Stand (2006)
3:10 to Yuma (2007)


Other Critic’s Reviews:
The Final Girl
The L.A. Times

Labels: Ben Foster, Dennis Quaid, film, movie review, science fiction