Director: Rob York
Writer: Scott Baird, Rob York (Screenplay)
Starring: Brandon Ray Olive, K. Danor Gerald, Whitney Palmer, Matthew Mercer, Nicola Posener, D.L. Walker
Plot: After NASA picks up a trio of mysterious signals from within our own solar system, astronaut Roger Nelson is dispatched on a multi-year solo mission aboard the Magellan spacecraft to investigate the sources.
Tagline – The universe knew we were coming.
Runtime: 1 Hour 43 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Interesting Sci-Fi Film
Story: Magellan starts when NASA picks up a trio of signals coming from with our own Solar System, they want to investigate them and turn to astronaut Commander Roger Nelson (Olive) to go on this mission, one which will see him go on a solo mission for ten plus years, leaving his wife Abigail (Palmer) behind with his connection being Becker (Gerald) at mission control.
Once Roger reaches Titan one of the moons of Saturn he locates the first signal, a mysterious orb which gives Roger a strange draw, to make matters worse his wife is suffering back home and we are left to wonder if the sacrifice will be worth it and just what will he discover?
Thoughts on Magellan
Characters – Commander Roger Nelson is the astronaut that is selected for the solo mission one that could easily redefine human history, he simply can’t say no to it even if it means leaving his wife for ten plus years. Roger gets to investigate the location solo while keeping his sanity on the isolated mission with his only communication through the transmission he receives. Becker is the communication with Mission Control, he relays the information from NASA which is one of the two people Roger talks too. Abigail is the wife of Roger that is dealing with her own problems back home struggling with the time away from her husband even if he is doing something wonderful for mankind.
Performances – Brandon Ray Olive does a good job in the leading role, he must do most of the work with most of the film follows him on the solo mission, he keeps our attention which with the wrong actor could easily lose us without a strong performance. In the support roles we follow the actors on camera which is good without needing to do too much.
Story – The story asks the big question, ‘are we alone in the universe’ without going down the line of full alien hunter, invasion or communication. We go down the path of searching for life of other planets or moons which is a path we have been doing in real life, as somebody that would be interested in seeing where science could take us, the slow discovery of anything in space is something that fascinates me and this film keeps us wondering just what could be discovered, without going completely outside the realms of possibilities. The story may have a couple of safe ideas going on with minor moment of peril Roger finds himself which would never be a problem for him on a solo mission and the relationship to the people back home feels like there should have been a lot more communication with NASA.
Mystery/Sci-Fi – The mystery in the film comes from the signals being set to Earth, what do they mean? What are they? Is this sign of life in the universe? These play into the sci-fi side of the film which focuses on finding the answers to spaces biggest questions.
Settings – Most of the film is set on the Magellan the space craft taking Roger across the Solar System, it is a simple craft which does the work needed for the mission without becoming completely tech heavy like we have seen in other film. when we get to planets or moons we can clearly see that this is the films weakness when it comes to the effects used to create the worlds.
Special Effects – Thee effects here are the weak point of the film, we can let the film away with these flaws though because the story is interesting.
Scene of the Movie – The next step.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – The effects when docking.
Final Thoughts – This is one of those sci-fi films which does ask the big questions and becomes fascinating to watch, sure it does have a few issues with special effects, but the story keeps us wanting more and more.
Overall: Fascinating story.
Rating
