Review: SPACE WARS is a fun shallow sci-fi B-movie with a bucket of popcorn

Space Wars: In Search of the Deepstar is a film that was recently released in select theaters. The film features a story created by Garo Setian (Automation) AND Joe Knetter (Blind) with Setian directing and editing and Knetter writing the screenplay Michael Pare (Streets of fire), Olivier Gruner (Nemesis), AND Sarah French (Cute guy) hero. The Uncork’d Entertainment team was kind enough to send me an advanced screener for the film and it was a wild ride. If you can’t watch Space wars in theaters, you can watch it digitally on May 2.

The film concerns a father-daughter team of space scavengers who must race against a band of evil mercenaries to reach the legendary treasures aboard a mythical lost freighter. Their quest will force them to navigate a universe filled with giant monsters, aliens, robots, and a deadly enemy out for revenge.

Boys, Space wars it’s a bit of a journey We’ll start with some obvious statements. It’s a B-movie (at best) with less-than-stellar acting and writing. I will say I was amazed at the quality of the special effects. GeekTyrant has been gifted with an exclusive clip from the film showcasing some of the special effects and while they aren’t on the level of say Marvel or Star Wars movie, it’s way ahead of many other B movies. Sadly, I’d say it’s the pinnacle of the movie.

In the world of Space wars, the wealthy have found a way to take a person’s essence, preserve it as a bright blue liquid, and then, for the right price, bring the person back to life via robotics. It’s certainly an interesting premise, even if there’s literally no explanation for how the essence of a person is gathered, which raises a lot of questions. Also, they keep talking about human-cyborg hybrids, which is annoying because cyborgs are, by definition, a human with robotic parts. I know this is all semantics, but it bugged me.

The plot of Space wars it’s pretty straightforward and there aren’t really any twists and turns, which is fine. One problem I have with the story is that it doesn’t seem to go much anywhere. In an effort to avoid spoilers, I’ll just say that the big lesson they try, but fail, is that sometimes we just have to move on and enjoy the moment. Unfortunately, the messaging fails for several reasons, including the fact that there are no choices made by the main characters that help with that goal. It shouldn’t be too spoilery.

The cast is an interesting mix of talent. My friend and wife were quick to point out the acting talent that Sadie Katz'(Wrong turn 6) has a nose. Her nose does a lot of work Space wars. Overall, I’d say Katz, his nose and Anait Setian (Automation) were the best actors. I actually really liked Setian’s character, Jackie, who is a scientist who’s a little quirky at first, but he’s actually one of the best in Space Wars.

An interesting part I want to talk about is the use of robotics as a metaphor for LGBTQIA+ people. There is a very disturbed and creepy character named Wade (played by Tyler Galante (Alpha Wolf)) who says he hates all cyborgs and always knows when a person is really a reborn cyborg. Well, egg on his face because later another character is revealed to be a cyborg in a funny moment with a line close to “I thought you could say that.” It’s a fun time and an interesting lens to see the LGBTQIA+ community. I feel like he could have been taken a little further, but at least there’s something.

At the end of the day, Space wars not a great movie by any stretch of the imagination. However, when you watch it with friends, grab a big bucket of popcorn, and know not to expect much, it can still be fun. I don’t feel like I wasted any time watching it, which is probably the best praise I can give it.