Okay movie. Disposable crew members.

Rating: 3/10 (2 November 2011)

Event horizon is a decent film, but it comes with a price. It asks the viewer to essentially suspend disbelief in the face of the idiotic crew of the lewis and clark space vessel, who all seem to concertedly hate the dr. and behave as though they never graduated high school. One would assume that the crew of any advanced space vessel would be less arrogant, more reserved and more capable to deal with the unknown. And for some reason scientific concepts seem to invoke a knee jerk, adolescent reaction out of some of them which causes them to want to beat people up (what the?). Yea, they do not seem to be too big on science, yet they seem to know, paradoxically, how to operate the ship. It is a difficult thing to get past, but once you do, it is a decent film.
What this film excels in is atmosphere. And it has plenty of darkness in it, reminiscent, in some ways, of alien. Laurence fishburne does an adequate job of portraying the captain of the lewis and clark, the vessel which is on a mission to recover the secrets of the event horizon (the part where they find the event horizon actually reminds me of 2010: the year we make contact a little, when they find the discovery wreckage).
The psychological component is the most interesting aspect of this film, but it is also physically believable, which I guess means they got the props and effects portion of the film right. There are contradictions that are difficult to accept though, and unfortunately they have little to do with the actual story and more to do with stupid inconsistencies, such as when justin (I.E 'baby bear') suffers debilitating injuries from exposure to zero gravity for a mere 15 seconds, where he begins to spit up blood etc, but a scene toward the end where captain miller is somehow able to cope with the same exposure for what seems like several minutes without injury.
Okay so, toward the end it becomes apparent why the crew hated dr. Weir, but it's almost as if the story calls upon us hating him before we even know a damned thing about him, such as how attached he is to the event horizon, and even his attachment to the ship seems more of a neurotic condition rather than something to be hated for. Ultimately the film asks us to vicariously dislike dr. Weir through the crew of the lewis and clark, it asks us to admit that these lunk heads know better than we do, but it is difficult to buy and too simplistic a sell. the Dr. himself seems to be the only intellect on board. Everyone else seems to lurch around saying F**k every other word or sitting back with their feet up, chain smoking and acting like throw backs to the 20th century who are disinterested in anything to do with their chosen profession.
With all these flaws in account, the film does still manage to encapsulate you with its psychological component. But you almost find yourself not caring whether or not this crew lives or dies. The only one holding it together is laurence fishburne's character, and he seems to be the only person aboard the ship whose fate you care anything about. I suppose, in a sense there is that general feeling of humanity that encompasses you when you see these people faced with such incredible odds and frightening scenario, but it is hard to maintain with how childish, arrogant and knee jerk the crew members tend to be.
Overall, a watchable, atmospheric film, but could have been done way better than it was. I have seen it twice over the course of the past 2 years, and I do not think I will be revisiting it too much as there are much better films both intellectually and artistically, that have many more layers that one can invest ones time dissecting, and where the characters are not disposable idiots for the most part.