Great setup that fell to a bad ending

Rating: 6/10 (12 July 2004)

!Spoilers! I dunno about this film. I really liked the way the film was set up, but the ending was terrible. The first scene where Justin goes into the core reminded me a lot of "Sphere". In fact, the whole setup reminded me a lot of "Sphere", which might be why I liked it so much. The whole bit about the ship being able to fold space and create a gateway to travel through was totally believable. But all these shenanagins about it being able to jump dimensions? What is that about? And what made Wier "merge" with the ship, suddenly wanting what the ship wanted instead of saving the lives of his crewmates? He tears out his eyes and suddenly he wants what the ship wants, and somehow has super-human strength, able to pick up bodies and toss them like rag dolls? And what made the ship come back from "hell" in the first place? Did it just get bored after seven years and wanted to ruin more lives? The term "from hell" or anything like that has gotten so increasingly cliché that it becomes stupid. Granted, all the quick flashes of the people being tortured are pretty freaky, but they're just flashes, and thus limit their level of freakiness. The acting was strong, even though the plot got out of hand at the end. Laurence Fishburne and Sam Neill do a great job, and it is somewhat interesting to see Sam Neill in an antagonist role. It was also entertaining for me, a huge Harry Potter fan, to see Jason Isaacs (aka Lucius Malfoy) in a completely different role. All in all, I'd give it 6/10.