Virus - Ship of No Return
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Virus - Ship of No Return |
| Original title | virus |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1999 |
| length | 99 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | John Bruno |
| script |
Chuck Pastor , Dennis Feldman |
| production | Gale Anne Hurd |
| music | Joel McNeely |
| camera | David Eggby |
| cut | Scott Smith |
| occupation | |
| |
Virus - Ship of No Return is an American science fiction action horror thriller directed by John Bruno from 1999. The film is based on the four-part Dark Horse comic book series "Virus" by Chuck Pfarrer . The film opened in German cinemas on May 20, 1999.
action
An extraterrestrial form of energy, transferred to Earth via parabolic antennas via the MIR space station , takes control of the Russian military research vessel "Akademic Vladislov Volkov". The crew of the American tugboat "Sea Star" of a salvage company, in distress due to a typhoon , discovered this research vessel by chance in the eye of the tropical storm. When they get on board, the almost intact ship appears to be abandoned and they sense a great profit if they recover this abandoned ship. However, when the electrical system is switched on, mysterious creatures also come to life. A crew member also makes himself noticeable; a Russian researcher who immediately after her discovery, frightened, launched submachine gun fire on the Americans. After she had calmed down, she spoke in a panic and fragmentary manner of the events to which the entire 300-strong crew fell victim. It turns out that the alien energy lifeform has set up a robot factory in a large room on the ship and has metals, electronics and human bodies assembled into cyborgs . In the little communication between life form and the people on board, it turns out that she sees the people as a kind of virus that threatens the earth, but consists of usable materials such as nerves and "oxygenated tissue". The rest of the film is about the crew's struggle for survival against the cyborgs and a particularly large, almost invincible creature that also overcomes metal walls on its hunt. Finally, Steve and Kelly manage to escape from the research ship with a kind of catapult, which is then destroyed together with their dangerous inhabitants using previously prepared explosive devices.
Reviews
James Berardinelli wrote on ReelViews that the film reproduced Octalus - Death from Below , which in turn was a "cheap copy" of Alien . It fails in almost every “conceivable” area, only the special effects are “surprisingly effective”. Jamie Lee Curtis "sleepwalked" through her role, and Berardinelli wrote something similar about Donald Sutherland.
"Science fiction horror film built entirely on cruel special effects, whose comic-like characters show no sympathy and which searches in vain for its tension in intrusive music and predictable chases."
“The title virus, a term that is now just as common in data processing as it is in medicine, is an excellent expression of the ambivalence between man and machine; on the other hand, he inverts the perspective of the beholder in that the word in the film does not denote the threat, but the threatened object of identification: namely, the person. As the electronic alien explains to its victims via screen dialog, humans are nothing more than a disturbing virus that can therefore be switched off. This human nightmare of being classified and destroyed by perfect and all-powerful machines at some point is something that John Bruno has packed into a crude Hollywood mainstream that sometimes seems naive to hair-raising. In spite of this, or precisely because of that, whoever wants to, may find it socio-psychologically informative - or just have a reasonably exciting conversation or be delighted by various nice biomechanical disgusting games. "
Trivia
- In addition to two episodes of the series Star Trek: Spaceship Voyager , Virus is the only directing work by John Bruno to date. He also oversaw special effects on virtually all of James Cameron's films, most recently Alien vs. Predator (2004) and X-Men: The Last Stand (2006).
- Chuck Pfarrer drafted the script in the early 1990s. However, because he thought a film was not feasible at the time due to the special effects required, he brought out a comic book series of the same name. When the technology for the special effects was mature, Pfarrer rewrote his original script.
- Robert Dyke's film Moontrap (1989) dealt with a similar subject .
- The ship used in the film is real. It is the USNS General Hoyt S. Vandenberg track tracking ship , which was long out of service at the time of filming and which is now an artificial reef that can be dived off the Florida Keys .
Individual evidence
- ^ Review by James Berardinelli
- ↑ Virus - Ship of No Return. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ http://www.schnitt.de/202,2863,01
- ↑ Virus - Ship without Return on abrauchen.de ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed August 2, 2011
Web links
- Virus - Ship of No Return in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Virus - Ship of No Return at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- Virus - Ship of No Return at Metacritic (English)