Based on the reviews and legacy of this cult classic film, I expected a hidden gem from cold war Czechoslovakia. I mean, Stanislaw Lem is one of my favourite authors, and the prospect of a "2001 before 2001" really hyped me up.
So what went wrong?
Granted, I haven't read Oblok Magellana (the book this film is based on). However, all in all, this film comes out as a great disappointment, to the point where I question if someone tampered with my copy when I read other users' raving reviews. Despite clocking in at only 86 minutes, this film's length somehow feels absolutely excruciating, all while I can only recall maybe 2 things that actually happened in it. It's as if the audience is experiencing the same time dilation as the characters in the story.
To start, The story is boring, simplistic and poorly executed; the characters are instantly forgettable and the acting leaves some things to be desired. None of the elements of this film feel cohesive at all; it is as if someone came up with about 3 different ideas for short science fiction stories, stitched them together and thought it could pass for a film. When the end credits rolled, I just sat there baffled by the "plot" more than anything.
Way too much of this film is spent on trying to seem needlessly profound for its rather uninspired plot, and it begins with an extremely long sequence depicting "everyday" life on the ship (which would have been fine, if it was at all relevant to the rest of the story, and didn't contain a painfully long sequence depicting the filmmaker's view on what dancing in the future will look like). The soundtrack of mostly bleep-bloop music was intriguing at first, but ends up becoming old and repetitive very fast. The entire film, to me at least, just ended up feeling like a bad episode of Star Trek (the original series!)
There are only a few saving graces of this film. For one, the well-crafted sets and costumes are adorable in how well they encapsulate the artistic vision of the future typical of the period in the Eastern Bloc. In general, if you want to show someone from 2023 what we once thought the "future" would look like, this film is one of the best resources - everything from the weird robot character to the cosmonaut-inspired spacesuits (and, of course, a spaceship full of dead capitalists which the characters lament as being another extension of the 20th century's horrors). Additionally, as a speaker of Polish, I also found listening to the original Czech audio (which is the version I watched) very entertaining, due to the similarities in the two languages, and it honestly probably accounted for 80% of my enjoyment of the film.
Despite my poor reception of this film's story and plot, I still think it should be preserved at all costs, and a work anyone who wants to claim being familiar with the sci-fi genre needs to have seen. I do, however, think that you would get way more enjoyment out of this film analysing it as a piece of history rather than as a piece of media.
So what went wrong?
Granted, I haven't read Oblok Magellana (the book this film is based on). However, all in all, this film comes out as a great disappointment, to the point where I question if someone tampered with my copy when I read other users' raving reviews. Despite clocking in at only 86 minutes, this film's length somehow feels absolutely excruciating, all while I can only recall maybe 2 things that actually happened in it. It's as if the audience is experiencing the same time dilation as the characters in the story.
To start, The story is boring, simplistic and poorly executed; the characters are instantly forgettable and the acting leaves some things to be desired. None of the elements of this film feel cohesive at all; it is as if someone came up with about 3 different ideas for short science fiction stories, stitched them together and thought it could pass for a film. When the end credits rolled, I just sat there baffled by the "plot" more than anything.
Way too much of this film is spent on trying to seem needlessly profound for its rather uninspired plot, and it begins with an extremely long sequence depicting "everyday" life on the ship (which would have been fine, if it was at all relevant to the rest of the story, and didn't contain a painfully long sequence depicting the filmmaker's view on what dancing in the future will look like). The soundtrack of mostly bleep-bloop music was intriguing at first, but ends up becoming old and repetitive very fast. The entire film, to me at least, just ended up feeling like a bad episode of Star Trek (the original series!)
There are only a few saving graces of this film. For one, the well-crafted sets and costumes are adorable in how well they encapsulate the artistic vision of the future typical of the period in the Eastern Bloc. In general, if you want to show someone from 2023 what we once thought the "future" would look like, this film is one of the best resources - everything from the weird robot character to the cosmonaut-inspired spacesuits (and, of course, a spaceship full of dead capitalists which the characters lament as being another extension of the 20th century's horrors). Additionally, as a speaker of Polish, I also found listening to the original Czech audio (which is the version I watched) very entertaining, due to the similarities in the two languages, and it honestly probably accounted for 80% of my enjoyment of the film.
Despite my poor reception of this film's story and plot, I still think it should be preserved at all costs, and a work anyone who wants to claim being familiar with the sci-fi genre needs to have seen. I do, however, think that you would get way more enjoyment out of this film analysing it as a piece of history rather than as a piece of media.