Its not a sublime movie. It will never get much praise. Ten years later no one will remember it. Its just as silly as every other scifi movie out there with nothing new or groundbreaking to tell.One thing i did notice in this movie. For what little dialog there is in this movie is done behind masks/helmets. And one thing this movie does brake is the mask trap. Over exaggerated head movements while speaking. In fact this the only movie i know where actors don't bob there head around while speaking, they just deliver their lines like anyone would do with or without mask/helm. Even blockbusters, Mad Max, Star Wars, you name it, all of them guilty of the mask trap. Its the first thing i noticed about this movie and its still the first thing i remember of it. Only a detail, but a huge one for such a little movie and one of the reasons why i praise this movie. From all the scifi movies out there, you can go a lot worse.

For those not aware, this is basically a 'student' film, made by amateurs who somehow got a budget and the time together. But it's a rather good one.It's a spin off from the 'Enemy Mine' universe, and that's not blowing anything, you find that out pretty quickly near the start.It's well shot (the landscapes are austerely gorgeous), and there were a couple of moments, just a few seconds here and there, where there was some beautiful capturing of reactions among the protagonists.Rookie mistakes:* Dialogue that drags on and on with too much back and forth. They needed to sit down and edit the hell out of all the conversations. I'm impressed they managed to get the film up to feature length! But it's mostly talk-padding, unfortunately.* Shot sameness. Basically in a film no two shots should ever look the same, unless you are doing so deliberately to make a point. But this is largely a function of how much time and effort you can afford to put into the thing. It's also why roving cameras and continuous takes have become more popular (and all this 'found footage' rubbish). Simplest way is to shoot all scenes with at least 2 cameras, then shoot them again with the cameras moved, and make sure they are all at different zoom distances - gives you 4 streams you can edit to jump between that all look different.And that's about all the criticism I can level.The story could have been told in 40 minutes, and probably should have been, and if I want to give them another digging at I could say what the hell was with the capes and crests on the helmets? But, style is a choice, they wanna make it look that way, that's their prerogative.OK - now I wanna see the same team go forth and make a REAL film! They have proved they have what it takes!

To all of those who convinced me to see this particular example of the sci-fi genre that I love, I curse you. Indeed, I hope that you never find good sleep, al dente farfala or a real fashion bargain. I mean, what were you thinking? There were, for instance, reviews that mentioned character-driven narratives and other reviews that mentioned Star Wars. What none of these reviews, or comments from those that I read prior to purchasing these DVD, was that this film did not work. On any level! To understand what I'm saying, you must understand that I really like bad films, I thrill to controversial films, and I adore good films. This is none of them.What kind of film is this? This is a film devoid of believable action, and yet not worthy of that bad-film endorsement that films by Ed Wood, Michel Carreras, Arthur Seidelman and others get. In short, this is a terrible example of middle-of-the-road effort, sub-par performances, and mundane play-acting that deserves no credit as a howler and no endorsement as a genuine effort in its field. In fact, this film does a disservice to other films that might try to win our affections for an outlandish but exciting story. Booh to it,and booh, too, to those who who praise it.Let's see what we're talking about. Can you make it through the first twenty minutes? Really? Without being a personal friend of the "actors" on the screen? I think not. All in all, not a golden moment for Sci-fi. Despite what anyone will tell you, this one should have been bricked on the head.

I've kind of scored this more than it probably deserves - but damn, I've missed these completely out there little gems. Its speculative fiction at its best. Think of those obscure TV Twilight Zone episodes from two decades ago.A simple story, a soldiers tale. There's no real twists, what you see is what you get. The context however is the story, and by that I mean its all in the dialog. Commentators are quite right in comparing this with "Enemy Mine", which is by far the closest film comparison despite all the various other film references, and I would go so far as to say this is a better story, despite being portrayed on a much lower budget. Sure, there's obvious errors throughout. I'm sure film buffs will point them all out, but hey, a wonderfully obscure, wonderfully simple story that kept me captivated throughout. Not every ones thing of course but, hey, very worthy nonetheless.