In the greatest decade for movies of all time, the 1990’s, science-fiction was probably the most popular genre to please for many people back then. Whether it is in a Blockbuster or at a cinema, a lot of them were huge successes like “Terminator 2: Judgement Day” and most of the “Star Trek: The Next Generation” films. However, the uproarious and active year that there were more original science-fiction films was 1997. Movies like “Starship Troopers”, “Gattaca”, “Men in Black”, and “The Fifth Element” challenged viewers into original premises where audiences and critics came to be polarized. 21 years later, especially “Gattaca”, the stories grew on the audiences and even some critics that created the still-existing idea of a cult following. That would be the case with one of Paul W.S. Anderson’s early movies he made before making the “Resident Evil” franchise an utter devil to critics, “Event Horizon”.
“Event Horizon” is a film that was intended to be over 130 minutes long, but then later cut down to 97 minutes due to Paramount giving a different release date that year for what could be the highest-grossing movie of all time, “Titanic”. As of 2018, Paul W.S. Anderson still claims to this day that the rest of the original cut was still considered lost footage and will never be on any upcoming release of the film.
The film is set in the cold, distant future of 2047, where seven years ago in 2040, a spacecraft named Event Horizon disappeared after a voyage to Proxima Centauri. Now in 2047, Captain Miller (Laurence Fishburne) and creator of the Event Horizon, Dr. William Weir (Sam Neill) along with his rescue crew are investigating survivors in the spacecraft appearing in orbit around Neptune. Once investigated, the crew experiences shock and terror when the ship’s gravity drive comes automatically activated. This makes Captain Miller and his rescue crew worried for disaster like never before as well as being eager for survival, which tempts Miller to destroy the Event Horizon as soon as humanly possible.
In the late summer of 1997, it was both a failure for critics (For example, Roger Ebert gave it 2 out of 4 stars) and audiences because most of them thought it was too similar to films such as Ridley Scott’s horror masterpiece “Alien”, where it focused on the themes of survival and fear as well as featuring authentic, practical effects. Truth be told, he actually inspired “Alien” while making this film along with “The Shining” to personify this spacecraft as the unknown. Meanwhile, the film got its success into full glory when released onto home video back in late 1997.
What I can tell while watching this for the first time is that it is the 90’s generation’s “Life” with Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds, where it copies and inspires “Alien” through its human condition and terror. It motivates the viewer to sympathize for these characters whenever they are in danger. It showcases themes of danger and survival which that might be the reason why Paul W.S. Anderson back then develops his characters very intrusively. Although very predictable during the third act as well as some viewing shots of the spacecrafts may be questionable, “Event Horizon” still holds up as a disclaimer that “Alien” rip-off movies can work as of today.
The character design is probably the thing I personally admire about this film. Each character showcases so much surprisingly hard emotion throughout the film. Two examples that probably show the best are obviously the two main leads. Captain Miller, played by Laurence Fishburne, is a focused, steady captain who is serious and worried on a problem whenever there is something wrong despite being fearless of the task. Sam Neill plays the creator of the spacecraft whose characteristics can be sometimes stubborn and mostly evil. It may not be the characteristics you would expect out of a creator, but when that creator thinks it can create infinite terror, the characteristics are both acceptable and make sense.
The thing which makes me so sad about this film is that Paul W.S. Anderson doesn’t make a film like this where it isn’t bloated with cheap CGI to access an entertaining movie. Instead of this, Anderson back then executed a premise many people have seen before, but does it with full justice to create an underrated science-fiction thriller many people from the ’90’s will remember and also people that love movies in general.
Grade: 8/10
