Not sure if Dark Star is funny "haha", funny weird, or funny bad.
Not bad bad, mark, but no one can deny the ridiculously low budget effects, the poor sound quality, and the somewhat stilted acting. Despite this, though, I like Dark Star. It has the feel of being the product of a couple of film students (which is exactly what it is) and I can't help but wish that someone had sunk a little more than £38000 into it.
Because the ideas are sound. It's a comedy of a similar feeling to 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy', and the scenes are all nicely thought out and put together. If only that could have been added to some top notch special effects and the movie as a whole would work very well, with the beautifully vast vacuum of space contrasting the human's petty boredom and problems such as the entire supply of toilet paper being destroyed.
The characters are fairly simple, but nicely expressed. Each has wants and quirks and the way they live together after twenty years of the same company is believable. They are on a mission to destroy stars that are likely to pose a threat to human colonies, or something. You get the impression that the reasoning behind this is badly thought out, but I didn't particularly care. The ship (of the same name as the film) mirrors the characters, as it is in a state of gradual decay, while its crew lives in a state of blank boredom as they carry out their ridiculously tedious tasks.
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| AHHH! VOLLEYBALL! |
There are a lot of good ideas in 'Dark Star'. The pet beach ball alien, believe it or not, was taken as one of the influences for the movie 'Alien' - though the Xenomorph is less easily deflated. The chase-the-alien scene was fun, and highlighted the somewhat TARDIS-like quality of Dark Star through use of a huge elevator that goes up and down continuously for some reason. The Alien will definitely have you rolling your eyes, but the absurdity of the whole situation kind of works.
It is a similar story with the massive sentient bombs, who the crew of Dark Star repeatedly have to talk down from their suicidal tenancies when the go order is accidentally given. The bombs have slightly irritating personalities, which I think works well for their characters, and we get a little rudimentary philosophy (and, I believe, an insight on the creator's low opinion of the field, or at least the way it is often taught in schools - not you, Mrs Anderson, you were great) when Doolittle accidentally teaches bomb #20 about Cartesian doubt.
The interior shots are all quite close, and convey the limited space inside the ship. They contrast the exterior shots well, though obviously it would have been good to see them all in a better light, with more effective... effects. I kick myself for going on about that though, as I can use my imagination, and the story itself is great.
Captain America was also a nice touch, and I found his weak, faintly distressed voice oddly chilling. The movie ends neatly, and each character meets a fitting end (though probably not deserved). The image of Doolittle surfing the debris especially is rather timeless.
This movie feels very much like 'Silent Running'. A similar feeling of lonesomeness, a similar time of creation, and somewhat dated effects. I do like 'Silent Running' (I'll do a bit about it at some point) and I do like 'Dark Star'.
Dark Star: 69.7