Christopher Caldwell and Zeke Earl’s “PROSPECT”
A movie review by Dennis D McDonald
A troubled father and his adolescent daughter descend to the surface of a verdant and primitive planet from a passing space station. In a few days they hope to find a buried treasure about which the father has prior knowledge.
Instead of riches they encounter pain, suffering, and tragedy. The daughter is forced to team up with an unlikely partner to escape the planet before their return home has swung by and left the planet’s orbit.
As simple as the story is the execution of PROSPECT is excellent. Special effects are meager but convincing. Sets are few but realistic. Small physical details such as medical equipment, weapons, food packs, and written language are remarkably complete. Photography and color are times lovely, at other times gloomy and foreboding. Costumes, especially the ever present pressure suits mandated by the planet’s toxic atmosphere, are amazingly varied and realistically worn-looking.
Most impressive, however, is the acting. The main characters, especially the young girl, are convincing and very well portrayed, despite the chracters spending the bulk of the movie in the aforementioned pressure suits.
PROSPECT is proof positive that a convincing and engaging sci-fi film need not be produced with a bloated budget or the overwhelming effects of a superhero or end-of-the-world cataclysm. The characters here may be accustomed to space travel between worlds but their personalities and back stories are remarkably down to earth.
Review copyright © 2019 by Denis D McDonald
