A Rat In The Attic

Rating: 2/10 (29 December 2008)

A rat in the attic is a good metaphor for this unimaginative "sci-fi" flick from director Ridley Scott. The human crew aboard a Hollywood-conceived spacecraft diddle and dawdle. They chitchat about this and that; they eat; they smoke; they look at outdated computer screens; they emit petty frustrations. Finally, after interminable plot filler, and after our space voyagers have displayed requisite incompetence (what would film stories be without incompetence?), ET shows up on-board, less cosmic than sleazy, like something the cat drug in from a b-grade horror flick. Now, our beleaguered ... and incompetent ... crew promptly sets forth to deal with the menace.
But our spacecraft-trapped rat has vanished into the woodwork, probably to escape the crew's incompetence and/or all the hammy acting. Where did ET go? Behind the stove? Under the frig? Inside the computer? Nope, he's in the attic. Quick, fumigate. Oops, too late. The house is condemned.
I'm constantly amazed how easily sci-fi fans can be satisfied by conventional, stodgy stories, and cheesy, overbearing special effects. Where in this film is a sense of the cosmic? Where is the originality? Where is the science fiction in all of this?