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Carter is sentenced to death and is imprisoned in a military jail, while the authorities accuse him of partaking in a massacre of a deep-space colony. As fate would have it, he breaks out along with his gang and they hijack a small military fighter. 15 years later, an observatory ship that is run by commander Cal and crew members, Billie and her daughter Veronika, catches sight of and retrieves a ship with Carter and his crew on board. Upon reclaiming him from stasis, Carter deceives them and states that he was a target for a mutineer. His plans go haywire when he attempts to rape Veronica and all his actions catch up to him. Now his true plan comes to light, he intends to free the rest of the members in his crew…
Despite its limited storyline, the movie Escape Velocity does manage to capture the viewer’s attention. Besides Paul A. Birkett, who has directed movies such as Alien Tornado (2011), this picture is also set on a spaceship where a lone pilot is accompanied by three civilians. This confirms that the plot of the movie takes place solely on a spaceship. This enables the viewer to focus solely on the primary characters without having to waste time on unnecessary subplots which plague other movies of the same genre. However, this does impede the pacing of Escape Velocity, making it slower than it is required. At times, it truly feels as slow as a 60-minute-long teleplay, with so many things added to reach feature length. When compared to the latter portion, the initial act consists of a very long build up. That being said, the second half of escape does follow a standard format of vengeance, and has the mother taking the lead, with the latter portion being quite action-packed.
The time we have taken to get to this point has certainly developed some characterization which makes the climactic moments more pleasurable and for that matter actually stressful – being a low budget movie, it isn’t hard to picture the screenplay being guided to some type of optimistic, or to an even more abandon and despondent finale. Still, with the limited time that exists in the script, the fact that no reasoning is put forward to explain the tellingly obvious issue of the enormous vessel being manned by so few active members of the crew and why it was considered appropriate to take on a virtually purposeless teenage girl and confine her to a position where she wouldn’t be a productive working component for two years is astonishing. The movie could be enhanced if the reality regarding Carter was not disclosed to the audience for a larger portion of the full duration.
This film is surprisingly different from most of Simandl Lloyd A. films which are lighter in nature, such as the Bound Heat series. The director does tend to lean towards a more adult themed genre, and this movie has some elements of that, but overall it depicts a more serious nature. The sets used are however standard due to low funding, which gives the movie a typical cheap sci fi spaceship vibe, but the editing makes up for it as it is decent and the CGI used, although limited, is good. The only downside to the set is the corridors which were not that interesting themselves, but many of the other rooms were able to catch my attention.
The small cast is able to act stupendously and I found it quite shocking due to how long the movie is. The best performer during the film is Patrick which I feel was cast perfectly for Billies angry scenes, and Wendy who plays the commander does a great job as well. My favorite character is Carter because instead of acting the part, Peter manages to make it seem like he is enjoying it and is genuinely fond of the character in question, which in this case is Carter. While Michelle Beaudoin did a nice job playing Veronica, one point of criticism I will point out is how she doesn’t manage to come off as a naive eighteen year old. However, in her defense, that could also be attributed to bad casting.
Escape Velocity, while difficult to get into due to its lengthy mid sections and some brief plotlines, builds up to an enjoyable and action packed climax which was made more meaningful by the character build-up, aided by good acting and direction that looks better than expected. While it does require a little bit of patience, it is indeed an enjoyable and worth watching film.
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