Debug (2014)

People are voting emotionally.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The computer system of a spaceship develops delusions of grandeur and starts murdering the crew. Where have we heard that one before? Oh yeah, HAL 9000 in Arthur C. Clarke's "2001..." Well guess what, 2001 has come and gone, and to date only 12 men have walked on the Moon, not only in the last century but in the last Millennium. Unsurprisingly, this story is said have been inspired by the aforementioned novel or the film based on it. Is there anything in "Debug" we haven't seen before? Not really, there is not much of a plot, nor even a side-plot, even the love interest that might be expected to develop on a spaceship where guys and gals are confined together doesn't materialise, unless one counts a bit of light banter as a love interest.Seriously, does "Debug" have anything to offer? Well, if you like bright lights and mild special effects you might find something of interest here, but if you are a "Dr Who" fan with an IQ over 70, you can forget even that.

This movie starts out bad, and unsurprisingly, gets worse from there. The acting is amateurish, the special effects are rudimentary, and the plot is contrived and better handled in films such as "Event Horizon". Even as a fan of Jason Momoa, I still found myself wondering how anyone thought this movie was a good idea, as it was just so basic in terms of size and scope. The one area where it could have been something special (the FX and Gore) was edited, so that you never actually saw the deaths but the after effects, which is a cop out if I ever saw one. The only good thing about this film would have to be the design of the ship itself. Everything else? Incredibly mundane and bland, just like the rest of the movie. A horrible vision of a horrible future, this movie would have been truly something special had it been handled by a competent and talent team. Avoid, as I should have.

Debug is simply a cheap knock off from Event Horizon. 6 hacker prisoners are sent to a derelict ship (which looks a bit like the Event Horizon) to debug the evil AI, but the AI fights back. One of the biggest problems is that the film has no atmosphere. While Event Horizon was a ship built like a dark Gothic cathedral, this one is bright and clean an shiny on the inside (I know it's cheaper and director David Hewlitt wanted to reference 2001 A Space Odessey). The actors also aren't A-grade but a bunch of unknowns except for Jason Momoa who David Hewlitt worked with on Stargate Atlantis. This film is OK for scifi fans but it's very skip-able for everyone else.

A movie that feels a little old school but still has some surprises, it's a solid effort by fan favourite David Hewlett. The use of HUD's and security cameras as well as the blinding white of the station does enhance the claustrophobic feeling. The highlight is Momoa who is super creepy as the Iam. Kaida as the heroine has enough balance and complexity to make her likable.The only downside is it feels like episodic TV, which means as a viewer I wanted so much more background before entering into this story. I feel like the exposition was rushed at the beginning which made it difficult to connect emotionally with the characters.