Virtuality (2009)

Sorry, this movie sucks

Sadly Over-hyped

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

This was the most boring, irritating, complete waste of time imaginable. The only reason I even bothered to look it up was because the movie suddenly ended without any explanation and without ever having a story. When I bought this DVD, I had no warning this was a TV pilot with a hanging ending which made no sense. I looked it up to see if I could get some kind of explanation as to what it was I had wasted all this time watching.I usually like Sci-Fi's. I had no idea this was a pilot for a series. The first time I tried to watch it, I turned it off as soon as they got to the rock star singing the 1960's Munsters TV theme song in Japanese. No Joke! I love Sci-Fi but I certainly didn't buy a space movie to watch civil war scenes and bad rock star concerts or a crew of immature, airhead, boring video game junkies or listen to their nonsensical ego-babbling into the video camera. These are not even decent actors. The females all slurred their words together.I finally tried to watch it a second time a couple years later; using the fast forward to get past those maddening irritations while I kept hoping that something sci-fi was going to show itself at some point when the plot became clear.Watching an entire crew of narcissistic morons who condescend and cast disparagement upon everything their fellow crew members say or experience is an X gen nightmare. Much of the show was more like watching a daily producers meeting behind the scenes at Fox. A network so bad, I deleted them from my TV menu 10 years ago.Even worse was the male crewmembers crass, insensitive, smarta$$ attitude toward 2 female crew members who had been viciously attacked during their virtual reality... especially when it was clear that someone on the ship was hacking the system to use it as a weapon to brutalize their fellow crew members yet they were so totally oblivious they refused to look into the issue or even take it seriously... nor did the males who were attacked bother to speak up to alert the others... instead they joined in the condescending and the total lack of compassion toward the females over this violent assault issue which was extremely disturbing for the viewers because this has been an IRL problem with victims of real attacks. No one wants to put up with a TV show which thinks it is OK to make a joke out of someone being violated. We were also forced to endure the psychological unfitness of this crew for space with their issues of dead children, lost pregnancies & doctors office visits; plus ego programs and how the male crew members actually got off on being killed in their virtual reality encounters which empowered them when off the VR system. Truly bad screen writing and dialogue. The worst casting imaginable. Then there was the mental melt down of the jerk of a captain who they mercifully did away with and then just stopped the show without any closure or sense... forcing us to look up this movie to find some sense out of this complete farce. Clearly not recommended for anyone with an IQ above 60. I suspect some of these "fans" are mostly under the age of 12 or associated with someone involved in the original project.Who would go into an airlock without being fully outfitted, even just to get a tool? Who would ever take a chance of any kind in an airlock? Also, what kind of person would think it was OK to make jokes and condescending comments while someone is trapped inside an airlock? Not to mention the fact that the writer and director seemed to be clueless that there is NO inertia or G force or hull stress or turbulence in weightless space once you are outside of the gravitational pull... not even with a rotating spaceship for internal artificial gravity. Not to mention a space crew depending on a clueless computer that cannot answer any questions about who was in your quarters or follow instructions such as "close" door? Nor did anyone seem interested in diagnosing the computer and virtual reality system for the cause of the failures. They were all too busy focusing on their own entertainment to be concerned. And why would anyone who was violently violated on a virtual reality go back in again? This wasn't a SPACE drama. It was a VIDEO GAME series.This is the one rare time that FOX actually did the right thing by not picking up this series. The true surprise is why anyone would waste money for the production of this pilot in the first place.

Effects are quite good - they even chose Projet Orion for their drive. Good on them.But I'm pretty sure it's JG Ballards 13 to Centaurus. Hope they paid him for the use.It's a long duration experiment that they aren't aware they are in. The psych is the only one who is cognizant and he's playing games of his own in his own little human ship in a bottle. Mission control knows this but are afraid that if they interrupt the experiment they'll damage the crew.It's not to say that this can't be a good series. (a TEN year mission? yikes. That's like ten years of Weakest Link). There are only so many plots. Let's see what they make of it. Or has Fox, in it's infinite wisdom, already decided to cancel it?

While it isn't the be-all/end-all, I liked it overall. I can't believe though that the comp rating for this is 6.6 when Event Horizon gets a 6.3 and Terminator Salvation gets a 7.1 and Transformers gets a 7.4. Where's the justice in that? Anyway, I'll be interested to see what comes of this as a series. BSG had its moments that stretched into infinity, but overall the series was spectacular, so I'll give these guys enough rope to run with or hang themselves.The infiltrated VR system is a neat hook, the idea of a possible life-after-death in VR land, the problems of whom to believe and trust as cabin fever sets in, this is all fertile ground for plot (and thus character) development. Plus, they took the entire pilot introducing you to a character who dies in the end. Gotta respect a writing team who is willing to invest in a doomed character! True: none of the characters were dazzling, but then, have you ever watched a reality show and given a damn about anyone on it? (If so, please seek help.) A few of them at least have potential; Jensen and his simulated child, for one example.Man up, folks. Whether you like it or not, sci fi is not always about chest-bursting aliens, "moon-based lazers", killer cyborgs (whether they disguise themselves as crappy American cars or not), or spaceships that become possessed by demons. Sometimes its just about how technology affects the way people live and interact with each other.

I'm not a huge sci-fi fan, I'm more into drama, and this pilot seemed to me like a very clever drama. Sure, it's set on a spaceship, but that's just one of many layers to this story. I can see this story developing not just in space, but in all the various virtual reality modes that the crew tunes in to. A pilot is always about setting the stage and introducing the players, and it was some good writing that had me doubting the presumed main guy for some reason, and when we lost him, it hurt but not for long. The character is obviously not gone, and I think there are endless possibilities for this to work. Peter Berg is one of my favorite directors, I could see a bit of Friday Night Lights camera work in there, some hate that style of erratic camera work, but I happen to be fine with it. Talking camera work, the VR mode sequences were beautiful, they sucked me in, really nice stuff! So in conclusion, I really hope I will see the continuing saga unfolding, this is a great idea for a TV-show!!!