This film must be about cosmology and astro-physics, because it has a black hole at its centre. That black hole is the actor Jason Flemyng, one of the most catastrophically miscast actors I have seen in a long time in a film. Doubtless he is a very fine fellow, and can act very well in certain roles. But unfortunately some lunatic has cast him as Professor Quatermass, the lead character of this story who is meant to be brilliant and charismatic. Flemyng has about as much charisma as a woodlouse. All the people around him, such as David Tennant, give the impression of being far more intelligent than he is. The story thus streams over the event horizon into the black hole that is Jason Flemyng and disappears out of sight, taking with it all possible drama and interest. What a pathetic disaster this is. The production was mounted as a BBC live production, the first in 20 years. That part of it was an interesting challenge, and I would say that the production manager pulled it off. But otherwise, this effort is worse than an embarrassment. They used the original scripts of Nigel Kneale, who created Quatermass. (Maybe slightly out of date by now 57 years later??) So many films and series have been made over the years since 1953 exploiting this material. Some of the actors who have played Quatermass in the past, such as Brian Donlevy and John Mills, were excellent. I think this disastrous failure tells us something about the state of the BBC at the moment, a monstrously mismanaged organisation which itself has become a disgrace and a disaster.
Review of The Quatermass Experiment
