Not bad...

Rating: 7/10 (14 October 2006)

7 stars.
I'd give it an 8, but it's not QUITE an 8. 7.8, say.
The design is good, REALLY good, unique and compelling. They manage to make the ship look beastly creepy. It's a bit OTT and obvious, but V effective...
The acting is really surprisingly good. The script ISN'T that good, but is made more than palatable by excellent interpretation by Sam Neill and most of the rest of the cast except Lawrence Fishburne, who spoils his part sufficiently to bring this film down from a "9".
(I simply can't understand why people keep casting Fishburne in Sci fi or Fantasy films. He obviously despises the genre...) The premise is a Hellraiser rip-off, but sufficiently different to make the new angle work in surprising ways.
Sam Neill really pulls this movie back out of Fishburne's clutches and away from the brink of turkeydom several times and *then* his gravitas slingshots it into well-deserved cult status...
Good last shot, too...