Star of Darkness

This is one of those films that started a lot of things, pretty much all space ship movies where the ship is old and odd things start to happen. Such as Alien, eventually Red Dwarf, and the like. And it's a "comedy", in that it isn't actually funny, although it likes to think it occasionally is.

The Dark Star is a ship that goes around space and finds unstable planets that will eventually fall into their suns, and then blows them up. Along the way, the crew deals with a beachball alien, and a recalcitrant bomb. And a rather bleak and sort of uplifting ending.

I watched the 68 minute original version, but that was enough. This is very slow moving, making me glad of VLC's time play function. Nowadays I can see this being spun out to over two hours, but just over one was enough. This is mainly due to the comedy not really working, and sequences that long outstay their welcome. (The whole alien/lift sequence, which is basically the second act, for example.)

The acting is decent enough, with only four people on screen, although we don't get a lot of character depth (I see there's a little more in the theatrical version). Production is good, with large panels of flashy lights and switches despite the low budget.

So, that's another 'classic' finally seen... and I leave you with this song...

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