For a low-budget film, they did a great job. They knew their limitations and played to them. I watched Dr Who from the 70s, so story will always triumph over fx. The limited sets did well, and the other environments were done in a way that they felt alien without having to go overboard.
The acting - the lead did a good job carrying the movie. Most of the other acting is delivered via recorded messages, and those are always awkward - acting or not.
The story - not too bad. Some uniqueness to the concept. But there is something mentioned earlier on that never really comes back, there is a subplot that is sorta alluded to, but not in enough of a way to make it make sense when they try to bring it back around.
It feels that a lot of the material may have been cut out, or they had the story well in their head and some of the exposition left out for those not as familiar. And as for material being cut out... the ending.
While not every movie needs a big happy ending, needs to resolve all plot points, etc. this ending is rather anti-climatic. If I was watching this on network TV, I'd expect there to be a commercial break and then the final 10 minutes.
All and all - it was an enjoyable film. I've seen much more expensive movies that were worse than this. Imagine this as Interstellar (or Contact) without any real resolution.
The acting - the lead did a good job carrying the movie. Most of the other acting is delivered via recorded messages, and those are always awkward - acting or not.
The story - not too bad. Some uniqueness to the concept. But there is something mentioned earlier on that never really comes back, there is a subplot that is sorta alluded to, but not in enough of a way to make it make sense when they try to bring it back around.
It feels that a lot of the material may have been cut out, or they had the story well in their head and some of the exposition left out for those not as familiar. And as for material being cut out... the ending.
While not every movie needs a big happy ending, needs to resolve all plot points, etc. this ending is rather anti-climatic. If I was watching this on network TV, I'd expect there to be a commercial break and then the final 10 minutes.
All and all - it was an enjoyable film. I've seen much more expensive movies that were worse than this. Imagine this as Interstellar (or Contact) without any real resolution.