The first thing that I want to say about this film is that it's clear that Director Chris Maes has a genuine passion for special effects, and has a deep admiration of the genre. As I was watching, it was fun for me to discover some of the inspiration that came from Sci-Fi classics such as Ridley Scott's Alien, and even some more obscure titles like Outland, starring Sean Connery and directed by Peter Hyams. It's also genuinely entertaining to me as an afficionao of independent films to see what can be accomplished when a Director/Producer has to overcome budget limitations. That's when real creativity comes to the fore. With that in mind, an ambitious film like this certainly can't be judged in the same category as something that came out of a major Hollywood studio and must be evaluated as such. That said, there were some scenes that rang true for the genre, Some beautiful composition of scenes, and others that brought a chuckle, such as a ceramic pedestal sink on a space station hovering on the dark side of Mercury. My wife and I got a good laugh out of that one! The script itself is interesting, and makes a 180 near the end of the film, to find out what that is, I guess you'll just have to watch, but it certainly caught us off-guard! The one real criticism I have is with this film is that some of the acting and directing didn't convey the gravitas of the situation that the main characters faced. Missing crew, a dead body, adrift on the dark side of Mercury, with no rescue team imminent, and IT that might be a little shady MIGHT be a situation where those who are still alive MIGHT have a little more urgency.
Review of Hemisphere
