Event Horizon, a film with so much promise yet by it’s conclusion you’ll be left wanting so much more.
Directed by the brainchild of films such as Death Race, Resident Evil and Aliens vs Predator, Paul Anderson does his upmost to put together a believable sci-fi horror, and whilst it is mildly enjoyable at times, it fails to deliver on many counts. The initial thesis of Event sounds quite entertaining, a giant vessel capable of inter-stellar travel, installed inside is the ‘Gravity Drive’ invented by the resident Doctor William Weir. The Gravity Drive gives the ship the ability to bend time and travel millions of lightyears in but a blink of an eye; sadly as soon the film begins the script fails it. The science behind the Gravity Drive is far too simple, making the idea of bending time and space travel far fetched and unbelievable. At no point during Doctor Weirs thirty second description, of quite possibly the most high-tech invention possible to man, do you sit back and think to yourself “yes, I could believe that”.
It swiftly moves forward and the crew begins to have visions at random intervals leading you to believe that the Event is ‘alive’. The visions are bland and have no meaningful effect on the plot other than to add a bit of fill in to lengthen the movie and they’re by no means well thought out either. You’ve got the standard list of ‘death of a child’, death of a wife’ and not forgetting ‘death of a previous crew member’, and while you’re sat their watching their nightmares playing out you start to count the seconds until one of the crew meets their untimely end.
The cast could be considered above average on first glance, but as the film progresses you care less and less about them. Sam Neill yet again puts in a stereotypical performance as Dr William Weir with lot’s of grimacing and his trademark smirk after scooping his own eyes out. He does his best to act as thought the Event Horizon is his baby and even has the audacity to turn around and tell the crew that the Gravity Drive is ‘perfectly safe’ despite them all being subject to a rather horrific video of the Events previous crew.
Laurence Fishburne is drafted in as the unstoppable Cpt Miller, once again he wins no awards in producing his usual deep voiced, save the world and blame everyone else performance. He quite emphatically fails in the final few scenes were his acting leaves much to be desired and instead of rooting for the underdog and caring about his outcome in the film you start screaming for Dr Weir to hurry up and gauge Cpt Millers eyes out, better still, your own.
Kathleen Quinlan plays the caring Medic spooked by the ship, her visions and the fact that despite knowing her Daughter is long since dead, still frantically chases after her. The script doesn’t ease you into thinking that she actually believes what’s she’s seeing, instead you simply watch on as the Daughter appears, a chase ensues and of course there is only one outcome. Joely Richardson is the First Mate and you will find yourself wondering where exactly she is for most of the film. For large portions of the movie she simply disappears and when she does appear she has no bearing on the plot and simply acts as the token blonde girl frantically trying to figure out what’s going on. Jack Noseworthy is your run of the mill fire first, ask questions later, rookie. He’s made out to be thick and once again you feel little sympathy when things start to go wrong for him. Richard T Jones plays the joker of the film, despite the fact he does little to raise the movies morale and simply sits in his suit screaming “damn I’m good”. The only notable member of the cast is Sean Pertwee, his gruffled cockney accent is a nice addition to an otherwise very American Film. He gives the British someone to root for as the film goes on, and amazingly you do find yourself worrying about him when he starts getting into trouble. You actually believe the Lewis and Clark is his baby unlike Dr Weirs relationship with the Event.
Sadly the fact that many aspects of the voyage are unbelievable instantly discredits most every member of the crew onboard the Event Horizon. Case in point Dr Weir explaining that the Gravity Drive is perfectly safe to a crew, which a few moments ago were adamant something was seriously wrong. Yet when Dr Weir finishes they all seem quite happy to believe his every word and get on with having horrific visions and playing around inside a quite obviously doomed ship.
The one upside to the film is the atmosphere created inside the Event Horizon. As soon as it’s thick metallic doors open your left looking in awe at the graphically perfect ship. When you first see the Gravity Drive you will shudder as you watch it’s medieval like rings spin in perfect harmony around an almost archaic metallic ball. The medical center has that perfect claustrophobic feeling where you know when something goes wrong; there is nowhere to run for its doomed inhabitants. The upper deck despite looking big still feels cramped, its low ceilings, spooky lighting and the blood all over the walls just make for a very unpleasant scene. Even the little shards of metal here and there that look out of place and tatty make for a very evil looking ship. When the crew first walks down the ridiculously long mid section of the event horizon you will get some genuine chills running down your spine, sadly the film quite quickly thaws out and the scary atmosphere and spine tingling graphics do little to grab your attention.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Sadly Event Horizon starts brightly enough before quite emphatically careering into a black hole, sucking all imagination and excitement out of a film that could have had you screaming in terror. It sets off with you wanting to know where this ship has been these last seven years and then you’ll find yourself being witness to a handful of random images, that put together, make absolutely no sense. Then on cue the great inventor loses his mind and starts trying to trap the remaining crew inside the Event Horizon. Don’t worry though his demise comes swiftly, what’s more it comes with no thought as you watch in disbelief as the great Dr Weir, the brainchild behind the worlds greatest invention willingly fires a harpoon straight through the window of a pressurised vessel. Anderson try’s to leave a bit of a cliffhanger as you watch the ships door close on the next rescue team waking the current crew from cryo sleep. Unfortunately by this point you will have little or no emotion left for the next victims of the Event Horizon as you yourself have become one.
