Customer Reviews

Starquest: The Odyssey

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MAVERICK ENTERTAINMENT has really improved their special effects of late. Unfortunately, the rest of the parts of their "films" continue to be worse than what you see high school students produce. In this "epic", a crew of 7 (the unshaven captain, his ex-wife the doctor, a Sulu wannabee, his wannabee girl friend, Wolfman Jack the Klingon, some armed Klingon psycho who keeps shooting up the ship, and some bald white guy who only shows up on the ship when the other 6 are busy elsewhere) pilot a thousand foot long space ship on a trip to contact the living oil well that controls all life. After they do this, they have a cliff-hanger ending. Just so the audience gets what's going on, STAR TREK lettering is used for all of the credits. Obvioudly the start of a franchise..

Stay away. This is worthless except for a few laughs. The plot is nonexistent; the dialog is stilted and often makes no sense. Acting, cinematography, editing, music, CGI, effects: all very poor. There are no interesting ideas or surprises which might partially redeem the film. Overall, comparable to the worst (1960's) Star Trek episode which has been re-edited by a monkey (with extra cliches added) and then filmed on a $10.00 budget.

I'm not trying to be harsh; I am an amateur filmmaker myself. I am sure these folks spent a lot of time on this movie. For a free download, it would be fine. However, it did not deserve distribution and certainly is not worth purchasing for $20+.

We rented this from Blockbuster because we thought that if Blockbuster offered it, it must be somewhat presentable.
However, this movie is trash. It could have been made by high-school or college kids. The acting, writing, and special effects are atrocious. I think the whole thing was just a scam: some company made a movie as cheaply as possible and wanted to make some money off of it.

The special effects are worse than the original Star Trek, which it attemps to imitate. Every character is a copy of Star Trek crew.
That said, the thing is so bad that it is actually pretty funny to watch.

There are apparently only seven people on a gigantic ship. When the captain gets up from his bed, we see the planet shake up and down from outside the window. A "distress beacon" was, as the communications officer discovers upon further investigation, actually a "lure beacon". Many more absurdities abound.

"Starquest: The Odyssey" is a truly odious film. Many have commented on its apparent parallels with "Star Trek" (I will kindly call it an homage,) and most commentators are universally allied in their distaste for this horribly made movie. While I am not afraid to go against the grain, here I must wholeheartedly join the majority: this is one of the worst cinematic blunders I have ever seen, and I've seen my share of turkeys. The film starts with loads of NASA stock footage and a narrator explaining the two factions in a galactic war. It's all tremendously boring, so the action quickly cuts to an incredibly poorly choreographed fistfight in a junkyard. Though the participants are later identified and the fight is given some relevance, it's just the first of many plot diversions which mostly serve to annoy. It also becomes quickly clear that this is yet another film in which most military commanders are hotheaded loose cannons with no self-discipline and who are likely to go rogue at any moment. (Former military members will beg to differ, at least in the US.) The next subplot up to bat involves the first in a continuing series of painful flashbacks explaining Captain Tanner's (Adam Rini) romantic entanglements with the ship's surgeon, Dr. Jessica Vox (Katherine Stewart.) Before it's over it's only one of two syrupy and dreadful romantic pairings on the ship.

A former enemy turned ally, Minister Hargoth (Shane Stevens) and his self-styled saboteur underling Lieutenant Dertax (Aaron Ginn-Forsberg) provide much of the interpersonal drama onboard the ship (please especially enjoy the "Warrior Challenge") and despite their prior warring, Tanner and Hargoth start to bond. The big inflection point in the plot is when the "Odyssey" receives a distress signal from a distant planet and charges to the rescue. Tanner sends Hargoth and Dr. Vox to the surface where they discover a pink and black talking water tower called "Sanctuary." There are lots of utopian fantasies, no signs of rank or status allowed, and all is well as long as you do exactly as the computer instructs. There's lots of technical banter: is "Sanctuary" merely a "spatial anomaly?" It would appear so. Or maybe not. Wait...can I change my answer? On and on the bickering goes with the communist computer, and sooner rather than later the cast ends up in togas. Needless to say Captain Tanner comes to the rescue and blows up Sanctuary with what appears to be a smoke detector.

That should be the end of the film, but just wait: the filmmakers aren't done with their dramatic machinations yet. There's now a supernova heading their way, there's sabotage from rebellious Dertax, there is a whole mess of post-supernova melodrama to wade through, and after all that the Odyssey is lost and adrift. But wait, there's more! A hostile ship shows up, tells the "Odyssey" they are not welcome and will be destroyed if they don't leave by the time they return. There's more pouting melodrama with Helmsman Lee (Niko) saying "I didn't think it could get any worse." Tanner replies "It looks like it just did." The end.

No seriously, it just ends. There is no resolution, just a drifting hulk and the brave space warriors adrift inside. I presume that a sequel was the hope, but given the quality of this one, I can't imagine how funding would be obtained for it. Everything about this movie is bad: it's derivative, the acting is just awful, the sets are laughable (I particularly love the weapons storage locker that looks like a piece of furniture you assemble yourself from IKEA,) the story is not compelling, the direction and pacing are awful, and the characters aren't likeable except for Minister Hargoth, the one you would expect not to like. Coincidentally, Stevens gives by far the best performance in the movie: if the film has any bright spot (or at least a less-dim spot) it's him.

"Starquest: The Odyssey" is for experienced and battle-hardened grade-Z cinephiles only, and even then there are few compelling reasons to watch it, except for possible bragging rights that you were able to endure it all the way through. I recommend a policy of avoidance, which in this case is even better than détente.

This is most definitely a film to be rented for a dollar instead of bought. As people have said before this is a very low-budget production. The acting quality varies among the characters. Some were good , others well...not so good. The space special effects were actually pretty good for a low-budget film. However, on the space ship or stations it is clear that they did not have much to work with budget-wise. Nevertheless, this alone would not be a movie-killer. (Think old Dr. Who episodes, in the 1970's).
One thing to its credit, I thought they did a good job on the music for the soundtrack. Unfortunately, no one clued them in that the soundtrack should be much fainter when there is dialogue going on.
It does look very much like an introductory film for actors, writers and producers doing their first "professional " film. I saw it as a free rental which perhaps allows my review to be a bit more generous.
If it is their first project then I think that they tried very hard and with time will become more polished. If they have a few movies under their belt well, then...the other reviews kind of spell it out.
If you have ever sat through an old Dr. Who episode then this is more of the same except with some better special effects. The fight scenes were horrible and really should have been edited out or just much, much shorter

I watched the whole film. The whole thing, knowing it was obviously NOT going to get better. Sadly, it didn't really get worse. It was just "blah" bad. It really looked like a student product, only a student would have made a better film. I really mean that too.

I can totally see a few ways this could have been made watchable:

1. Fix that horrible music score. It's corny and badly redundant. It is more suited for a parady or perhaps a porno.

2. Fix the editing. Tightening the exchanges may hide the bad acting.

3. Fix the lighting. Perhaps if they dimmed the lights on the ship, it wouldn't look so fake.

4. Fix the special effects. If your CGI isn't up to par, please use a model.

Literally the only thing that kept my partner and I watching was Captain Tanner. He's a good looking man and easy on the eyes. Otherwise...it was like watching a really rough cut of a film that isn't finished.

And speaking of not being finished...a cliffhanger ending?! I doubt we'll ever know what happened next, but if it was up to me, the ship would have been destroyed a few moments later, making a sequel impossible.

I'm an SF fan and am willing to tolerate some bad acting or effects if there is a story or just ANYTHING in a movie that offers some imagination. I even enjoy movies that are so bad they're good. This movie introduced me to an unexpected and previously inconceivable experience. This is the first movie that I EVER considered turning off during the opening credits. The script and voice talent were that awful.

But I watched the first 5 minutes of the movie anyway. No improvement. Did some fast forward. Turned it off after 10 minutes.

Just ridiculous. Sometimes a movie is so bad that it is just so bad. So very, very bad.

Your time is precious and when 10-60 minutes go by you never get them back. ANYTHING is better than filling 10-60 minutes of your life with this movie.

From the opening credits, you know you are in for a treat.

Remember back to 7th grade when you thought how much fun it would be to make your own sci-fi movie? Then 5 minutes later you saw a shiny object and forgot all about the idea?

Well, "Starquest: The Odyssey" is the type of movie you would have probably made, if your 9 year old brother was directing it, maybe 6 year old cousin writing the "plot?", and you had all of your 7th grade friends do all the acting.

Shockingly bad.

And yes, one of the characters actually does use the line "I'm a doctor, damnnnit". To her credit, she did not say "..not an actor"

Save your 99 cents and rent something else....anything would be better.

Yikes! This movie is downright awful even for a low budget film. My kids school plays are better than this piece of cinematic trash.

The acting is awful! The acting feels as if the actors learned their lines the day of shooting. The sets look very cheap and the special effects...well they were special all right. And I did say "wow", as in wow that is really awful. My best advice to you is not watch this film not unless you have had plenty of beer and ready to part with a few brain cells. My advice to the actors, stunt folks and set designers...don't put this one on your resume.

I never write reviews but I thought it was my civic duty. This isn't a review but more of a warning....This is the worst movie I've ever scene....seriously ever. I do enjoy some very low budget movies especially horror films but this isn't funny or entertaining. I will not elaborate on the film itself because it's too painful.

I strongly recommend that you don't even rent this film. I did and can't believe the company I rented it from would even have this in their library. Legal action should be taken....I just got robbed. It was like paying someone to beat yourself up.

I suggest you visit IMBd for a review on this excuse for a movie.

I do thank the makers of this film because I know that I will never see a worse movie the rest of my life. Please save your money.