Teleios (2017)

Beautiful, moving film.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Mild Spoilers, nothing that will ruin the movie. This movie is re-named, just as several others that I've come across on Amazon Prime (search by director or actor name, then match the artwork, if you run into this). I am assuming this is to make some kind of connection to Star Trek (there is none, and despite numerous quotes, I didn't hear a single reference to anything about a trek, in the movie). The writer was going for a more thought provoking resolution, so I could see a comparison to Star Trek: The Original Series. I can forgive a lot, in terms of special effects (which were actually pretty good, for the most part) and acting (which was definitely less consistent, but I thought it was a reasonable effort to portray characters who aren't regular humans). My biggest issues were significant problems with the story that distracted from the big and interesting questions that it asked.Unfortunately, the story broke down in several places. If you listen carefully to the time frame for Teleios' rescue mission, transit time is quite long, requiring some sort of stasis pods. But, if you follow the timeline for the problems on the Atromitos and the return time given toward the end of the movie, the Teleios would have to have left almost a year before the Atromitos started harvesting its cargo, and more than two years before all hands were presumed dead. In addition, the issue that crops up for all of the Teleios crew members seems to have just become a problem on Earth, but the crew has been in stasis for three years (so either they have an additional three years before it should be an issue for them, or they shouldn't have a problem, since they had been in transit while the problem developed on Earth). There are odd things that happen with the artificial human, but not enough clues are given early in the story, so the additional information we get later just feels tacked on. Finally, the underlying reasons for the final 'choice' and resolution are not foreshadowed well and not explained at all, until after the fact. Also, one has to question how the person affected could become a member of a spaceship crew.There are also some serious technical errors, particularly at the beginning. The CGI suggests that the asteroid belt is made up of large, closely spaced rocks. In fact, planetary rings are made of many small particles that are far apart. Also, the Teleios' speed is given as 485 km per hour. This is far too slow for planetary orbit, and it's far too fast to be the speed relative to Atromitos. Later, the formulas given are very simple chemical compounds, which couldn't possibly represent the complex compounds that one would find in Titan's atmosphere and certainly not something that couldn't be easily synthesized on Earth (so why send an expedition and spend two years collecting it). These details can be easily verified, so this is just lazy writing.The story makes use of numerous quotes. If the crew can translate them, there's no reason they couldn't figure out that they are rather famous quotes. I recognized several, as soon as I heard the translation. There's no reason the crew shouldn't recognize them, if they are as intelligent as is suggested. Furthermore, the quotes just don't make that much sense. Why are they in the original languages? The character who speaks them is described as having little education or intelligence, and we never get a reasonable explanation for this. As a group, the quotes make much more sense in reference to the themes in the story, but not as part of the main action.I think the story would have benefited significantly from more editing and revision in the writing stage and the help of a technical expert or two.As it is, I want to say it's a valiant effort for a low budget movie, but there are big problems with the story, and a million dollars is still quite a bit to work with. They clearly were able to put together some reasonable special effects, which tends to be one of the biggest expenses for sci-fi movies. This movie falls down at a more basic level: bad science and poor story telling. It really is frustrating, because the pieces are there to make a smart, killer, low-budget movie in the vein of Screamers or Slipstream.

I'm going to review this because I so object to the low, around 3 stars, rating it seems to have gotten. It's a science fiction film, but it's not about killer robots, particularly; it's not about planets or star ships blowing up; it's not about aliens invading the earth. It's a quiet, sort of slow film, that seems to be about one thing and then turns out to be about something else. It's low budget but I don't think that is damaging in the least. The acting isn't bad - it's part of the story. In fact, I will watch for the actors in other work just to see how they do. The story, as I said, seems to be one thing, but then starts to twist and turn to an ending that is quite moving.All in all, I'm glad to have stumbled across this.

This movie examines some big ethical and moral issues. Any film that quotes Tolstoy and Moliere is for thinkers. It may be sci-fi, acuity is not the best, but really quite good. Questions about eugenics, intellectual property rights, the morality behind life and death decisions, and the emotional weaknesses of humankind make it intellectually interesting. Reviewers who have focused on the costumes are missing the point widely.

I was lured in by the movie poster and the hope that this was actually going to be a good sci-fi movie, and the fact that the synopsis of the movie seemed interesting also caught my attention.Then 39 minutes into the movie, I just gave up. This movie was sheer and utter boredom presented in a shiny and glowing sci-fi wrapping. There was just nothing compelling about this mundane and boring storyline that the writers had mustered to put together.And it didn't help that everything just screamed low budget presented in a mediocre wrapping. Granted, I have seen worse productions of sci-fi movies, but there just was that spark of low budget to "Teleios" such as in the weapons, the sets, and the so-called human-like robot beings. I mean, the way that they were moving was just so 1950's and laughable.I didn't get captured by the storyline, despite the fact that the storyline had potential to make a great movie. It was just the lack of pace and Progress to the movie that killed it off. I could live with the sense of pseudo-low budget, sure, but the inactivity of the storyline and the irrelevant characters was an anchor around the movie."Teleios" didn't bring anything new, memorable or innovating to the sci-fi genre, and it is hardly a movie that will make a lasting impression, even with those in the audience that manages to sit through to the very end. And it is hardly a movie that will stand out as being a milestone in the sci-fi genre.The acting in the movie was adequate, although I can't really claim to be familiar with those cast for the various roles. Some did better jobs than others, of course, as it always go. But no one in the movie were really outstanding or memorable.Not outstanding and not memorable seems to be keywords to this movie.If you enjoy sci-fi, then there are far, far better movies available. And personally I find it hard to see why anyone would actually sit through the entire length of "Teleios", because it was a drag of a movie.