Voyage of the Chimera

With a cast of many, there isn't one actor aboard this space adventure. Low budget is no excuse for being a bad film. El Mariachi proved that. They probably spent more on this and it doesn't show. Watching it now I ask myself, should I even finish this crap or just watch Seinfeld repeats? It's just so awful I beg you not to even start it. I would bet my life saving that the "10" reviews are from the cast and crew or their friends. There is no way any sane person would watch five minutes of this dreck without shutting it off. Or maybe hate watch it with friends. It does kinda scream for MST3k viewing.

This is not a standalone movie, and there is no ending - just a "to be continued" when the picture drops. Which is pretty much the final nail in the coffin. The effects are middling, the writing weak, and the acting really wooden, but all of that could have been forgiven if it was a complete story. Unfortunately, it ends without resolving a single major plot point or exploring a number of worldbuilding issues that were merely mentioned. The pacing is really slow within scenes but then characters have to tell us they've been there for a while because there is no passage of time between scenes. Sadly cannot recommend watching this.

Yes, you have to get past the micro-budget effects and flat acting, but I did find myself enjoying it and hoping that the "to be continued" happens. I watched this feature late night, after a more polished but completely forgettable SF film, appearing as a random "watch next" suggestion. The trailer reminded me heavily of the Traveller TTRPG setting, so I started watching to see if this was someone's campaign put into motion. You see, it has a coherent story, believable behavior, and some nice well thought out action. It doesn't rely on flukes or coincidences - other than one that makes this a story rather than a non-event. So many SF and action films end up relying these to prop up lazy writing. I was definitely left with the impression that this film was set in a larger universe. The team had a story they wanted to tell, and just went ahead and told it as well as they could afford. Micro-budget films can be much more polished than this, to be sure. Think of "Iron Sky" and it's precursors (Prik series?). But remember how many year some of these took. And yes, it does feel like someone's Traveller campaign - which wouldn't be a bad thing.

This is a barely tolerable fan-film quality movie, that without any warning is the first part of a series. I give a film two stars merely for that insufferable stunt. Whoever wrote and directed this film is obviously a major naval ship battle fan who decided to conduct such in deep space. The Captain reminds me of Wil Wheaton. His crew... I'm not sure whether they're actual actors, investors, or friends and neighbors making a very low-budget film. The story is somewhat intriguing (mainly because there's a mystery involved), that mystery isn't solved in this film. The special effects and battle scenes are admirable considering the tiny budget. So kudos for that. But it's pretty obvious with a $20k budget that the actors were working for potential take rather than a direct paycheck. Still, the film is more than I would expect for that kind of money. But when a movie is continued without any prior notice, it will be the last of the the series I watch, whether it's continued or not. If you enjoy the idea of spending 75% of the film in a mock-up ancient-tech submarine control center listening to military commands being thrown back and forth, boy is this the film for you. For the average viewer... you'll likely want to watch something else. Now, let's see how many family / friends / actors and others involved with this film decide to neg-rate this review. ; )

This is certainly a low budget film. Given the low budget, the green screen work is good. The acting is horrible. It's worse than a high school play. Stunted delivery of lines. Monotone dialogue. The script is simplistic at best. The crew is portrayed as though they are on a WWII navy cruiser rather than on a futuristic high tech spacecraft. Lighting looks like it was done with utility lamp from Lowe's. I'm pretty sure this production was made on an ipad. This is not the kind of movie you watch when you're looking for an edge of your seat thriller.or even one that will keep you awake. This is the kind of movie you put on Amazon Prime when you have absolutely nothing else to watch on a Sinday afternoon.

Remember the trivia said this was made on a budget of $20,000. It is really unfair to try and judge this film by big budget standards. Space Opera Science Fiction is not cheap to make. Sets are expensive and so are special effects. I was very impressed with the space combat scenes. They were very well thought out and realistically presented and explained. The dialogue wasn't bad, the presentation was which comes back to the fact they just didn't have the budget to get enough talented actors. Someone said they wouldn't hire any of them. I disagree, there are four talented actors, the rest weren't and should consider working behind the scenes. All in all I liked the story and wished they'd had more money for casting. As science fiction goes it's a story with a lot of potential and I'd like to see more just to find out what happens next.

This felt like the premise was inspired by the people who made it: a ragtag crew with a tight budget and limited direction on what to do next. There were a couple decent actors, but they had small roles in the film. The audio was inconsistent at best, with moments that were clearly overdubbed (horribly), followed by dialogue that was echoey and then immediately into dialogue that was loud and overpowering. It felt like most of the budget was spent on CGI for the space shots, which actually were quite impressive for a completely independent film. I was 18 minutes into the movie and nothing much had happened - I had learned more from the opening text than the dialogue. They were following a ship for prize money, but that's all we knew as the viewer, and they just kept following the ship and following the ship and following the ship and then finally something happened. They also tried to work in these meaningful moments like the second in command calling the captain by his first name while leaving for a potentially dangerous mission, but we didn't know the characters enough to care if they lived or died. I really wanted to love this movie, but the audio issues alone were enough to take me out of my suspension of disbelief.

I really enjoyed this one. I'm amazed at what they were able to accomplish on such a small budget. A little of The Expense and a little Battlestar Galactica. There was great detail given to ship maneuvers in space. Especially impressive to see them feature retro engines along with port and starboard thrusters. Was also nice to see them utilize actual munitions instead of taking the easy way out with energy based weapons. More attention should have given to crew costumes and next time, maybe some female crew members? Sure there's room for improvement acting wise but what was on display here left me wanting more, not less. Looking forward to what comes next.

Yes, this appears to be a more cerebral installment of more to come in a series, but I think the characters are pretty solid, some action but not a lot, but mostly I'm impressed with how much the production used visual effects for what appears to be every shot in the movie. Also, I like the fact that there aren't any traditional sci-fi aspects like "shields" from sustaining damage from attacks. It's like, you get hit with a torpedo, you're dead, just like a submarine attack, but in space. I like that. There's more at stake by doing it that way. So I'm excited to see more from whatever the producers have planned.

Okay, the movie had some interesting concepts, a future starship in a time when humanity has colonized the stars, and different factions run their own spaceships, hunting smugglers and pirates. A formerly wealthy family buys a ship and a captain's commission for their aristocratic son, but he really has no idea how to command a ship. The sets are kind of nice for the budget they must have had, and the optical effects are decent, but any nerd can render nice looking spaceships on their computer these days. The story is slow-paced, with dragged scenes of the crew and their problems. There are a bunch of plot threads that don't go anywhere, like the Marines who are supposedly part of a religious cult, but they don't go anywhere with it. The other thing that struck me as strange, was no female cast members. I think there was one character who must have been someone's grandmother reading a letter from home. "READ THE LINE, NANA!" but we are to believe the space force of the future is all male? The uniforms look like someone got them at a Navy Surplus store, which again, it's 600 years in the future, and you haven't advanced your clothing technology any? The real problem was the acting. None of these guys could act. And looking at the IMBD page, most of them only have credits for this. This movie might have had a lot more heft if it had better dialog, better actors and a more concise plot. The ending is open ended, like the people who made this really expect their to be sequels after they sold it to Amazon Prime for whatever they bought it for.