Search - Dark Planet on DVD

Some Wasted Talent

Michael Butts | 05/17/1999

(1 out of 5 stars)

"It's unfortunate to see the talents of such marvelous actors as Michael York and Harley Jane Kozak wasted in a mediocre film. The book of the script was weak, and the plot was slow to develop. There were many holes in the plot, (perhaps they were swallowed up by a blackhole). The "secret" of the Dark Planet was not addressed enough, so there was no suspense in the mission, and in turn we never got the opportunity to be concerned for the characters when their safety was jeopardized. The character development was at a minimum, and Paul Mercurios's "Hawk" was behaving too much like a star-chasing Don Juan. And are we to really believe that BOTH women would become smitten with him from the get-go? The characters of Hawk and Brendan were far too vulnerable in nature to believe that they were hero material. Especially Brendan, who was supposed to be a skillfull rebellion leader, but this has more to do with the screenplay and direction than the actress. All the actors did as best they could with the material they were given.On a more technical vein, I've seen better graphics and special effects in a video game. The lighting was much too dark to give the sinister, moody quality that it was striving for. I liked the production design, as it didn't strive for the traditional sleek look of such shows as "Star Trek", where the ships look more like hotel lobbies. The ship in "Dark Planet" looked like it was designed for battle.This movie wasn't a whole loss, and is worth a viewing if you're a fan of either Michael York or Harley Kozak, but don't waste your money buying it....go take a trip to the nearest Blockbuster."

DULL PLANET

Michael Butts | Martinsburg, WV USA | 09/02/2004

(2 out of 5 stars)

"First off, did anyone else think that the doomed lady in the opening scene looked like she worked at McDonalds? That's just the beginning of an incredibly dull, farfetched, incoherent and out and out boring movie. Paul Mercurio plays an ace pilot named Anson Hawke, who lost his wife during a mission through an enormous wormhole!! He is later released from prison to pilot a ship back through that wormhole in search of a mysterious dark planet. Seems like on earth, there are two sets of people who have survived three world wars: the Alphas, genetically enhanced humans, and the rebels, real humans or "mutants." They want to find this dark planet to see if it is habitable, thus mankind can get a new start. One scene has the ship going through a mine field, wherein the mines actually look like cordless microphones. The special effects, what little there are, are pedestrian, and obviously shoestring budgeted. The acting is atrocious: Harley Jane Kozak taking on the Sigourney Weaver role, but with no muscle; Michael York shamefully overacting as the obvious bad guy; Maria Ford with her clothes on most of the time, which is quite unusual for this comely actress. If you like tense exciting scifi, this is not the movie to watch."