Why Couldn't this film have been any better?

Rating: 6/10 (26 April 2003)

This is one of those films that has so much potential that never gets fully developed throughout the film. You have a few darned good actors such as Keith David and Vin Diesel, and a script that isn't sure where it wants to go or what it wants to grow up and be. There is a sequel coming out to this and for the first time, I can say, I am looking forward to the sequel....that is...in hopes that it covers the areas that were so missed in this film: Character development, story development. Now, don't get me wrong, the film wasn't terrible, but you just watch it and at some point you say..."Huh. What happened there? There's gotta be more of an explanation to this." or "Why did they resort to this cheap ploy?" I liked the eerie backdrop quality of the film, they should have stayed consistant with that. My complaints were that I saw parts of "Aliens" parts of "Mission to Mars"--parts of other sci-fi "buddy-pick off cast-terrible guy with heart of gold" films that were thrown into this film where there was no need. The production and writing crew should have been stronger (Dan O'Bannon overseeing the script, maybe????) should have let this film be a stand alone onto itself and it would have been...spectacular.