Dark Star (1974)
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Dark Star Movie Review
Dark Star is a 1974 science fiction comedy film directed by John Carpenter. It is his directorial debut and a movie that did not age well unfortunately.
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“What a beautiful way to die –
as a falling star“
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The movie offers a satiric look at the problems experienced by a crew of bumbling astronauts on a mission to destroy rogue planets. First of all, the tone of this movie is all over the place. The eerie music would make you think that it’s a horror film, but the silly alien creature and stupid humans would suggest otherwise.
The comedy angle is also not great. With the exception of some moments, most of the movie was too silly to be all that funny with the ending being particularly ridiculous. A bomb listening to a character and deciding to not detonate was ludicrous and not as funny as the movie thinks it is.
The film also includes some dramatic moments with the scenes where the characters talk about their loneliness in this confined space. But those moments are too fleeting, and although good, more could have been done with this element at the end of the day. I needed to have cared more for these characters that are all too thinly written for their own sake.
There is this one sequence with the alien creature that I really dug and that is the scene where a guy is trapped in a corridor and he tries to escape. At first, the scene was suspenseful, but eventually it became quite funny in its physical comedy scenarios. This is the only scene in the film that worked tirelessly from start to finish. I just wish the creature wasn’t that ridiculous in his design. He is basically a balloon with legs for crying out loud.
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Dark Star is also way too seventies for its own good. The characters being eccentric, their clothing and hairstyle, their hedonism etc. – everything made it too dated and too confined within its own decade. The film trying to be a parody of ‘2001’ was evident, but it only succeeded in that in a couple of scenes. The VFX are dated, but actually quite advanced for its time and its indie budget while the production design and music are the other standouts.
