MEAD – Wonderfully Ambitious
Director: J. Allen Williams
Writer: J. Allen Williams, Jan Strnad (Screenplay)
Starring: Samuel Hunt, Robert Picardo, Lillie Young, Shawn Young, Voice Talents) Patton Oswalt, Patrick Warburton
Plot: A fugitive starship (MEAD) and a lone passenger (Fritz) evade earth forces utilizing their ability to project the passengers’ thoughts creating illusions that fool pursuers. But tech is being developed to thwart the outlaws.
Runtime: 1 Hour 44 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: MEAD starts as we meet Friz (Hunt) and the fugitive starship MEAD. Who use illusions to stay out of trouble in space, as they pair are being hunted through space. When the pair find themselves under the latest attack, they destroy the ship, saving a prisoner in a pod Phoebe (Young).
As Friz continues to try and allude Admiral Gillette (Picardo) who has been assigned to track the fugitives down. The race through space continues, as MEAD looks to use its skills to escape.
Thoughts on MEAD
Characters & Performances
Friz is the man traveling on the MEAD ship, he has been running for not following orders. Ones that he didn’t believe in more than were wrong. He relies on MEAD to help him with the illusions. As he is looking to just escape from the world, they find themselves in. He is cocky with how he stays away from enemy, thinking outside the box to escape.
MEAD is the spaceship that can help create the illusions, one-of-a-kind ship that can make anything happen with the power of illusions. Wanting to escape from the capture they have found themselves in.
Admiral Gillette is the man hunting down MEAD, he has seen his own reputation ruined by the escape. Being the only person that can see through the illusions being thrown towards his crew, becoming desperate the stop the fugitives.
Samuel Hunt and Robert Picardo as the human characters bring everything to their characters. From the cocky fugitive to the determined unhinged Admiral. The supporting cast will bring a few laughs along the way. Patton Oswalt’s voice work is the standout performance in the film. Getting plenty of laughs with his quick lines depending on the illusions.
Story
The story here will follow a space fugitive that along with the spaceship that creates illusions to escape capture. As they race through space trying to escape an Admiral determined to bring them down. MEAD is a massive cat-n-mouse style movie. With each major incident taking place at the different place when the two-side clash. Relying on the Admiral losing his patience with the illusions to drive the story forward. This does feel like it is only the beginning of a bigger set of adventures that Friz and MEAD could go on in the future.
Themes – MEAD is a sci-fi movie that takes place in the Solar System where a space criminal is using illusions to allude capture, each illusion will bring something completely random, which you wouldn’t see in space, it will add plenty to what we see, grabbing a lot of the ‘Ready Player One’ inspiration. Some of the special effects don’t come off as strong as they want to, but once you pull back and see the bigger picture, it is such an ambitious idea, you can’t help but enjoy the special effects.
Final Thoughts – MEAD is a fun Sci-Fi adventure movie, with so much ambition.
