[yasr_overall_rating]
A scientist and a pilot volunteer for a high-profile mission to reach the end of the universe. After 13 years, the ship crashes through the end of the universe and into the unknown.
I love challenging science fiction cinema, and clearly Thomas Zellen, the director and co-writer of “Beyond the Edge,” does as well. I suspect he was greatly inspired by films such as “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “Solaris,” and even the “Star Trek” franchise. His film, like those previously mentioned classics, is an ambitious attempt to explore an abstract concept in a space setting. It’s just not a very effective or entertaining one.
The film stars Sean Maher (“Firefly”) as Dr. Abe Anderson and Casper Van Dien (“Starship Troopers”) as Lieutenant Colonel Harold Richards. When we first meet them, they have already spent 13 years on a mission to reach the end of the universe. Harold serves as the pilot of the spacecraft, and Abe is there to do experiments on bees and eels. There isn’t much to do; Harold does pushups while Abe watches old sitcoms. There is also a pinball machine that may or may not work.
It’s difficult to explain the plot beyond that. The film keeps the audience in the dark by telling its story non-chronologically, and although the structure plays into some of the concepts that are eventually explored, it makes for a bizarrely-paced film that I found very hard to engage with. For the first twenty minutes or so, the two men hardly speak to each other. It isn’t until later in the film that we really get to see them interact or learn anything about who they are. I don’t think the writers had a good sense of how to tease the ideas they were getting at, and in the end they never explain the ideas directly enough for any of the third-act reveals to feel significant or really make sense.
It’s hard to fault the filmmakers for trying making the most out of what they had, but the film was clearly made a very low budget. The space shots look like bad green-screen effects, and the interior of their spaceship is never convincing. The performances are not very impressive either. Van Dien and Maher aren’t amateurs, but they don’t bring much subtlety to their performances and I never really got invested in their characters. Not they have very interesting dialogue or character arcs to work with. The film touches on themes of depression and loneliness, but not in a particularly thought-provoking way that made me care about what the characters’ were going through. There is one scene that stands out as tonally and stylistically very different from the rest film. It gives the actors some fairly amusing material, although it’s too long and doesn’t really lead anywhere.
For a film that feels likes it’s made by and for science fiction aficionados, it’s weirdly unconcerned with science or logic. It is mentioned that Abe is studying the bees’ behavior in zero-gravity, but it is never explained why Abe and Harold are completely unaffected by the lack of gravity. They are traveling at a ridiculously fast speed, but are somehow able to communicate with Earth in real-time, with no mention of relativity at any point. These are just a couple of things that film never attempts to explain.
I like high-concept films, but it can be tough to pull them off on a small budget. “Beyond the Edge” really exposes those limitations, and the script isn’t strong enough make up for them. It’s an interesting premise that unfortunately results in a messy, boring movie that I cannot recommend.
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For the most part I found this movie confusing. I really wanted to care about the 2 main characters, but the lack of character development left me frustrated. I was totally confused by the lack of any linear storytelling, and it was very difficult to tell from one minute to the next exactly what part of the movie was taking place. For me, that made it really, really hard to follow. A fantastic idea for a movie, in my opinion very poorly executed. Sorry to the filmmakers, but 2 thumbs down!
Terrible useless waste of time.