The best thing you can say about THE ORION LOOP is that it has a fresh feeling of originality to it which comes as a surprise in a world which was mostly full to the brim of ALIEN rip-offs. This one feels more like an avant-garde '60s experimental sci-fi movie in which a spaceship and its crew are dispatched to investigate a strange anomaly in space. What follows is low budget in the extreme, as weird supernatural events play out thanks to basic camera tricks like superimposed faces and the like. The lack of money plays havoc with the director's intentions and like all Russian movies it takes itself a little too seriously, but genre fans may find appeal in the film's freshness and unconventionality.
3 Reviews
Makes 1970s Italian SF movies look coherant.
junk-monkey21 March 2018
Warning: Spoilers
This movie is - at least with the English subtitles available to me - an incomprehensible mess. I have watched a LOT of bad SF movies in my time but this really is a clunker.
The plot, such as I could make out concerned a Russian spaceships journey to the heart of a deadly phenomenon, the titular 'Orion's Loop', which is heading for Earth. The crew are supplemented by an equal number of robots which (for brilliant cast/budget reducing and cunning 'plot twist' setting up reasons) have been made identical in every way to them. It is soon revealed, by ethereal aliens, that the dangerous alien phenomenon heading for Earth is actually a benevolent alien phenomenon manufactured by themselves. The aliens used to live in the solar system - but don't any more because their planet ('the tenth planet') got destroyed (for unfathomable reasons) and they now live somewhere else . Seeing Earth in the path of a 'Space Typhoon' carrying a a deadly 'Glass Virus', they send out their sooper dooper radiation belt to save their former neighbours. For some reason these ethereal aliens have managed to kill several spaceships full of people by talking at them too fast before our gallant Russians manage to get them to stop gabbling and explain things in simple sentences.
One of the Russians doesn't trust them and does that, 'going mad, putting the whole mission in jeopardy' thing that worked so well in Ikarie XB1 - and didn't here - before getting a hug from the female robot and just vanishing from the movie because... I dunno... the actor had to go make the tea? Your guess is a good as mine.
From time to time we have some shots of the cast on holiday on the coast. I would guess shot at some local Black Sea resort as this film was made by the Odessa Film studios. What this footage has to do with what is going on in space is not clear.
There's lots of zooming panning and hand held camera in this film. The previous reviewer likens this to avant garde 60's experimental film making. I think he's being very generous. It looked to me like Jess Franco had attempted to shoot Solaris in two days, on the set on Mystery Science Theatre 3000. (Not helped by the fact that our heroic captain does a Mannix over our inept cameraman - his leg appears in the frame at one point - as he lies on his back then films the actor running away on the ceiling.)
The plot, such as I could make out concerned a Russian spaceships journey to the heart of a deadly phenomenon, the titular 'Orion's Loop', which is heading for Earth. The crew are supplemented by an equal number of robots which (for brilliant cast/budget reducing and cunning 'plot twist' setting up reasons) have been made identical in every way to them. It is soon revealed, by ethereal aliens, that the dangerous alien phenomenon heading for Earth is actually a benevolent alien phenomenon manufactured by themselves. The aliens used to live in the solar system - but don't any more because their planet ('the tenth planet') got destroyed (for unfathomable reasons) and they now live somewhere else . Seeing Earth in the path of a 'Space Typhoon' carrying a a deadly 'Glass Virus', they send out their sooper dooper radiation belt to save their former neighbours. For some reason these ethereal aliens have managed to kill several spaceships full of people by talking at them too fast before our gallant Russians manage to get them to stop gabbling and explain things in simple sentences.
One of the Russians doesn't trust them and does that, 'going mad, putting the whole mission in jeopardy' thing that worked so well in Ikarie XB1 - and didn't here - before getting a hug from the female robot and just vanishing from the movie because... I dunno... the actor had to go make the tea? Your guess is a good as mine.
From time to time we have some shots of the cast on holiday on the coast. I would guess shot at some local Black Sea resort as this film was made by the Odessa Film studios. What this footage has to do with what is going on in space is not clear.
There's lots of zooming panning and hand held camera in this film. The previous reviewer likens this to avant garde 60's experimental film making. I think he's being very generous. It looked to me like Jess Franco had attempted to shoot Solaris in two days, on the set on Mystery Science Theatre 3000. (Not helped by the fact that our heroic captain does a Mannix over our inept cameraman - his leg appears in the frame at one point - as he lies on his back then films the actor running away on the ceiling.)
Sovietastic
Pourquoi_c_est_bon25 November 2023
An excellent science-fiction movie from the Soviet era.
The plot is smart and engaging, featuring plenty of unexpected twists and turns. It's basically an alien contact story mixed with an adventure story, with loads of mystery.
The film is beautiful to look at, and the special effects are pretty good. Sure, some of them give off that "classic Doctor Who" vibe, but the non-gravity stuff is pretty effective, as are some enjoyable hallucination sequences.
Soviet SF (and East European movies of that period) are sometimes thought of as little more than heavy handed propaganda pieces. Sure there's some ideology here, but even the most ardent anti-communist is unlikely to be bothered by it. "Science is good, countries should help each other"; it's that kind of stuff. (Even the philosophizing general in the prologue isn't so bad.)
In short, Orion's Loop is smart, atmospheric, it looks great, and it's a darn good piece of science-fiction.
Well worth your time.
The plot is smart and engaging, featuring plenty of unexpected twists and turns. It's basically an alien contact story mixed with an adventure story, with loads of mystery.
The film is beautiful to look at, and the special effects are pretty good. Sure, some of them give off that "classic Doctor Who" vibe, but the non-gravity stuff is pretty effective, as are some enjoyable hallucination sequences.
Soviet SF (and East European movies of that period) are sometimes thought of as little more than heavy handed propaganda pieces. Sure there's some ideology here, but even the most ardent anti-communist is unlikely to be bothered by it. "Science is good, countries should help each other"; it's that kind of stuff. (Even the philosophizing general in the prologue isn't so bad.)
In short, Orion's Loop is smart, atmospheric, it looks great, and it's a darn good piece of science-fiction.
Well worth your time.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
