MovieChat Forums > Starship: Rising (2014) Discussion > Where to begin....?

Where to begin....?

posted 10 years ago by paulwebb-34-803270
10 replies | jump to latest

Starship Rising is a noble attempt at a Riddick-esque Science Fiction Saga but falls far shot of the mark...

From the opening scene this movie screams "low budget" at the audience and it shows in every scene for the entire 90 minute running time

From a cast of "Who are they's"? to the writers borrowing heavily from British Sci-Fi series like Blake's 7 & Red Dwarf for the plot and characters this is one movie that even some good smoke and a large mixed drink are not able to help...

[–] MrsFuzzy 10 years ago

Everyone seems to be full of enthusiasm but not a lot of talent. I'm not sure why everyone had to shout at each other so much, and a lot of lines sound as though they were lifted out of any number of episodes of 'Star Trek'.

[–] skish-873-964700 10 years ago

I really don't think I could even call it a "noble attempt". Don't get me wrong. There was SOME good writing and SOME good acting but it was in short supply.

They definitely had a few different and fresh concepts which I thought were nice touches.

Definitely with you on the low budget aspect. Most of the armor was made from a mixture of American football, and extreme sports body protection. One of the guns that I noticed to be particularly bad was basically a piece of ridged plastic piping over what looked like a toy gun. The sound effects were terrible and mostly ripped from Star Wars... I could go on. The part that did it for me was the hilarious fact that they use jet engine noises (exterior) when they cut to a scene of a spaceship moving. Not only for the fact that you cannot hear noises in space but the fact that it is CLEARLY a jet engine from a modern aeroplane. If they're going to C&P noises then they could have been infinitely more creative.

I think with a few better actors, a slightly larger budget and someone to say "hey, stop making this look like you've got one too many chromosomes" to the writer/director... it could have been really good.

[–] facebook-688-234620 10 years ago

I didn't make it as far into the movie...

What's going on with the voice of the narrator at the start ?

Then the first actors are shown after 4 minutes in. Where the cinemagraphics have the same feel as Blade Runner. The game. In the 90s.

The greenroom overlays are so badly done with the poor background integration. And all scenes are filmed very claustrophobic even though the background overlays are all CGI. You feel the actors stand in a room of 2x2 meters pretty much ALL the time. While the scenes follow as if they were copy-pasted with hard ends.

While there seems to have been a lot of effort in costuming and the animations are ok-ish, the fixed camera position with something standing in it (unconvincingly and claustrophobic) or something moving through it - would've worked better in a comic styled rendition where you ARE effectively bound to a single frame and flash through it. Yet comic books give a more spacial experience.

So in general, this movie feels like browsing through a comic book. In my mind the director drew it out in comic-styled progression scripts but never made it into one fluid story or one consistent universe.

[–] drbits 10 years ago

Maybe they thought the set was a TARDIS? Or maybe there was no camera operator, so they had to stay in place to stay in frame.

I read that everybody thought the production values were a disaster. Is the story any good? It sounds like an Asimov adaptation.

Your description makes it sound like the movie started as an amateur project that got sold. Especially the fixed camera position (no camera operator means no director, just actors).

[–] paulwebb-34-803270 10 years ago

Well, if you were to make an attempt to sit through it and stay awake in order to pay attention to the movie (hard to do when it has a sleep inducing numbness about it) you'd notice that the budget is almost non existent for this which is a shame because with some more $$$ and better production values, props and sets this could have been a half way decent movie because the actual story premise wasnt that bad in spite of the lifting of ideas from Blake's 7 (Gauda Prime anyone?) and Red Dwarf (A minor character named Rimmer) along with elements from Dr. Who...

But alas, its not and will when it is released drop so fast and far down the Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB rankings so quickly you'll swear you got whiplash during the descent..

[–] theforsaken15 10 years ago

Within the first 20 seconds I said.
"Holy Hell! This is Foundation and Empire!"
Terminus, galactic capital of the Empire, about to crumble as any empire given enough time will...
I nearly jumped out of my seat going "Yes! It's about time!" Then as the movie proceeded, I came to the horror that no.. No this wasn't an Adaptation of Isaac Asimov's Foundation & Empire, but just a horrible, horrible B movie that outright plagiarized some of Asimov work, never even making it out as a homage, and then *beep* everywhere in the process.

Also, isn't it a law or something, that if your going to be making a B movie sci-fi film, that you at least include nudity in your sex scenes?

[–] paul_bruford 10 years ago

You are all too kind.
This is easily far and away the worst film I have seen in decades.
the sfx were reasonable for a low budget movie.
but the plot, acting, dialogue, mise en scene... eughhhh
utter rubbish.

Thats 45 minutes of my life I'll never get back

[–] yosh2005 10 years ago

Please! Red Dwarf was hilariously funny, but this film is LOW in any respect: script, plot, acting. It is horrible in ANY way.

[–] dark_scyther09 10 years ago

Felt like eastenders(or anyother soap) done in space context but i would rather see eastender anyday to this 'thing'.

[–] goshin34 10 years ago

Well, if you go into it with zero expectations, it is merely bad rather than horrible. There were some interesting concepts being played around with, things that could have added up to an interesting storyline. I think they were going for a sort of Dune-esque sense of grand scale... which of course fell far short in the execution.
Still, it wasn't the very worst movie I've ever seen. Not quite. I might even watch the sequel, if I get really bored some evening...