Event Horizon Blu-ray Edition
Event Horizon is a sci-fi horror flick about a new type of space ship, it’s inevitable mishap on the farthest reaches of our solar system and the rescue ship sent to discover what happened only to find the horrors that mans tinkering with the unknown has unleashed.
Film making 10/25
Cinematography 15/25
Audio 15/25
Bonus Features 5/25
Total 45/100
Every actor, well almost everyone, has jobs they regret taking sometime in their career and at least learn something from the experience. Event Horizon seems to be just that sort of film for some pretty decent actors like Laurence Fishburne and Sam Neill.
Flick is my term for a film or movie that does not really rate much attention so you get the idea pretty quickly that Event Horizon is not that great a film. While the action sequences are filmed pretty well and there are some good thrills here for sci-fi fans it’s not that great a story.
Event Horizon is the movie about the ship, Event Horizon that is lost after its first voyage attempt to travel outside our solar system. The ship has a unique drive system that uses a black hole to create a rift in space and travel between those two points instantaneously.
The ship is lost when it first enters the black hole or worm hole or whatever it is they create and word is not heard from them for seven years. Now the government sends a rescue vehicle to find out what happened and Dr. Weir, Sam Neill of Jurassic Park fame, who is the designer and engineer of the ship, goes along for the ride.
The rescue ship, the Lewis and Clark, with Captain Miller, played by Lawrence Fishburne, is in charge of the operation to find out what happened to the ship and bring it back to earth if possible. The ship is empty of humans but weird sensor readings make this a difficult thing to say, so of course crew members need to board and find all the weird stuff on board.
Through the next hour or so the crew gets bumped off one by one after seeing things from the other dimension that the gravity drive of the Event Horizon ripped open. Dr. Weir is sure they can get the ship working but right off the bat one of the crew members is sucked into a hole that the gravity drive creates and others try to rescue him.
He comes out of the hole and is catatonic but during the incident a shock wave damaged the rescue ship and the crew now needs to either repair their ship or get the Event Horizon working again, not a good idea. During the repairs more bad stuff happens and crew members start to see nightmare images and dead people doing not so good things that are common to space sci-fi horror flicks.
The end is inevitable, the crew get killed one at a time until only three of the minor actors are left with Captain Miller sacrificing himself to save the others. Dr. Weir goes a bit nuts and wants to stay with the ship he designed and does some very bad things to a couple of the crew members. The whole theme of the movie has the black hole or worm hole that the gravity drive opened to use for travel instead unleashing horrors from another dimension.
The gravity drive opens what is termed “hell” and it’s these visions and bad things that go about killing the original crew of the Event Horizon and now the rescue ship’s crew as well. The movie could have used a better story, better production or something as it really does a bad job of telling a story for a sci-fi thriller or a horror movie.
At no point in the movie was I scared out of my pants, just a term not that I want my pants to come off, oh never mind, nor did I jump at the unexpected like some really good movies have happening. Event Horizon is a high budget film that lost its way somehow and ended up being only a minor disappointment for me but a major disappointment for the studio. The action in some of the scenes is pretty good and it looks like they had some sort of a budget but some of it was not that great.
I did spot some obvious short cuts that are worthy of noting from around the film during several scenes that illustrate my point. The scene where they first go into the gravity drive room has the crew member hitting a door open button that is actually an air palm sander and they have large electronic power transistors glued to the bulkheads in another scene.
It’s these odd things like using real items and just gluing them to the set without making any effort to change them into realistic looking sci-fi type items that took away just as much fun from the film as the cheesy story. Yes, I do have to say the story is very cheesy, it’s the classic horror flick where you keep telling them to just not do something and they do it anyway.
Don’t bother with Event Horizon, it’s not that good a movie and you can get by cheaper by renting it unless you just have to get the extra’s which some cult fans may be interested in. The Blu-ray edition comes with a few bonus features including the usual commentary track and a couple of other things.
There is an unfilmed scene story board and a making of as well as a filming of Event Horizon and some concept art which about sums up the bonus features. Like I said, unless you’re a real fan of the film this small amount of additional bonus features does not add up to a whole lot.
Event Horizon is not a really good movie and is better off rented instead of bought; the Blu-ray edition has very little for bonus content and is really meant for the big fans of the film. While there are some good action scenes Event Horizon is not that great a movie and has little value in my opinion.