Look deeper into the obvious

Rating: Null/10 (19 November 1998)

I saw this movie on opening day in a packed theater. I knew it would be bad when I overheard the ushers were refusing to go into the theater to do a headcount. Expecting something on the level of Aliens, I was amazed.
Sure, the whole genere of derelict spacecraft rescued by motley crew of quirky deviant types had been done to death, but this movie was not intended to surpass those movies, but encompass and expound on them. I believe that the similarities noted by so many to Aliens and Hellraiser were not plaguerizing but tribute. If you look deep into the movie and its basic thesis, and not distract yourself with coolant containers and laughable artificial gravity generators, you will see that it is an allegory for the hell within. It has some great symbolism and the much criticised gore accomplishes what it is intended to accomplish--you are affected by this movie. Sometimes deeply. It leaves you with the feeling that somehow your soul has been taken out. Not for the delicate. Yes, the script is script is a collage of all the sci-fi movies in the past 30 years, yes the characters are one dimensional... but think on this: Were it more realistic, would you ever be able to turn out the lights again? Could you do any kind of looking at yourself inside without seeing Sam Neil staring back, eyeless? Perhaps the best review of this movie is this: After the credits started rolling to the soulless sounds of Orbital, something occurred in the packed theater that I had never seen before. As everyone filed out of the theater, faces blank and pale, not a single word was uttered. Not one. ***1/2 out of ****