Arrowhead (2017)

Simply Perfect

i must have seen a different film!!

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Here is a writer who had a brilliant idea, and then made the terrible mistake of putting it on film and directing it. The acting is mediocre at best, and the flow is horribly disjointed. The story, though--the story is absolutely excellent, as are the effects, props, scenery, and artwork (for the budget).Will you like this movie?If you're a true science fiction geek with any remnants of your childhood imagination (and you've had a bottle of wine.. or two) you will like--perhaps even adore this movie. I'm seriously about the imagination, you really have to meet this movie halfway.If you're a casual science fiction movie goer, who expects a captivating script, and nail-biting direction, probably not.Am *I* glad I watched it?Absolutely!3 stars off for poor story flow, and directing.

Honestly I had never heard about this film going in, so I had no idea what to expect. This Arrowhead is pretty good quality for something low budget, but there are times, particularly in the first scene, where you could probably guess this film had limited funds.The film certainly has many weaknesses, like a lack of subtlety, it often brings a lot of attention to details that at the time seem completely pointless and a waste of time, most of these moments eventually have a purpose but it still stood out at the time.Another weakness is consistency (spoiler paragraph), why is one alien man broken out of a rock looking egg when the other isn't? why did the protagonist find a skeleton of a woman who was not dead? most of the inconsistencies come from the whole 'monster/human hybrid' story, which to be honest I'm not convinced it was all that necessary, however that's probably just me being a tad confused as to how it all worked.As for what the film did right, it had a pretty stunning location for most of the film, near the start of the film I remember looking at the sky behind the character and liking what I saw. It was usually a very pretty film to look at. Also the scene at the start was quite intense and did get me interested.Not a great film but if you look at the IMDb page of this films director Jesse O'Brien this seems to be the first feature length film he has ever directed. While I wouldn't necessarily be anticipating a continuation on THIS story I would like to follow Jesse to see what else he comes up with next.

The synopsis here is that Kye Cortland (Dan Mor) is escaped from a planetary prison by some guerrilla types who are the enemy of the Empire and sent on a mission on a ship called 'Arrowhead' as he has the technical skills to fly it. The mission goes a tad wrong and he gets shipwrecked on a deserted moon. There is a tradition that certain prisoners are executed on a particular day each year and Kye finds out his father is next. All he wants to do is get to him before that happens and these outlaws are his only chance. The problem is he is not alone on this moon and what he meets will change him forever. Now this is low budget but that made me like it even more. They have gone back to basics and used bits of old vacuum cleaners and typewriters to make some of the props – even dustbin lids are employed. The acting is all excellent. Dan Mor is particularly good, but I have to say hats off to Christopher Kirby who starred in the brilliant 'Iron Sky'. He only has a small role but absolutely nails it and then some. The on board computer is brilliant too and will remind certain people of 'Dark Star' or even 'Red Dwarf'. The story itself is refreshingly original and it manages to keep the tension going right the way to the final frame. The CGI varies from rather good to above average but I am more than happy to live with that when the over all package is actually engagingly good.

If you like Sci Fi and you can still appreciate smaller productions, despite being spoiled by the excess of big budgets, then you will like this movie. Having said this, the production in this movie is great. After the introduction the story slowly develops, everything about the movie picks up a lot in the second half, it becomes intriguing after a Kafka-esque twist and it really becomes an enjoyable watch.With regards to previous reviews - Expressions involving space time belong to everything in the universe not just 'Interstellar the movie', the reference is unnecessary sigh, also the movie isn't totally focused on this theme at all. I would be more concerned with how certain other themes and concepts are unimaginatively explored to death in other movies over the last 100 years. Enjoy this movie on its on merits!