For anyone not in the know (which I’ll admit was myself not too long ago), ‘Space Command’ is the brainchild of writers Marc Scott Zicree and Michael Reeves, along with British director Neil Johnson. The project is a Kickstarter funded space romp intended to have the look and feel of nostalgia 1950’s science fiction. According to sources, the story will occur over 200 years of “epic struggles and victories of mankind’s future history in space,” and will chronicle “the development of the United Planets and Space Command as mankind steps off planet Earth to terraform and colonize the rest of the solar system and explore the galaxy.”
With that kind of premise, one cannot help but feel intrigued. But first, we need to look at the trailer that was released. Warning, according to the creative team, they should not be judged too harshly by the effects, as everything is just temp right now.
Film “elitist” that I apparently am, I could not help but notice the relative cheapness of the whole presentation, even with the aforementioned warning regarding the visual FX. And while it is very enticing to cast stars from classic science-fiction shows such as Mira Firlan & Bill Mumy from ‘Babylon 5,’ or Ethan Phillips, Robert Picardo and Armin Shimmerman from ‘Star Trek’ (to name a few), the whole thing feels like a cheap SyFy movie. Of course, once the completed effects are in, and the real edits are done, I’m sure my opinion will change, especially when I factor in that fact that they are operating at a fraction of the budget a studio movie usually has (I believe the Kickstarter raised about $200,000).
One thing is for sure, it already has a huge fan base, and the homegrown feel of the venture has excited a lot of people. So while it may be difficult to judge how exactly the picture is coming along, or how it might all turn out, the filmmakers should be commended for taking an original idea and getting it made outside of the studio system.
Source: GiantFreakinRobot
