inseminoid? disappointmenoid.

Our cinema history class continued its month of Alien ripoffs. Lat night's showing, Inseminoid (AKA Horror Planet), was the third in the series, though I missed one for vacation. Two weeks ago I enjoyed Contamination, perhaps more than it deserves. But, as much as I wanted to enjoy Inseminoid, I just couldn't.

The opening builds a great sense of tension and thereby does a great job of drawing the viewer in. But from there it goes downhill. There's a sterility to this film that reminds me of the TV show, Space 1999, which had promise but was just too boring to like. The pacing is too slow, and the characters were too wooden for me to really care about any of them.

I will acknowledge that there were a few sequences that had genuine suspense. But they were too few and far between. And, of course, they were in support of characters that were largely interchangeable and unsympathetic.

Let me also note that the ever-present and overbearing sythesizer soundtrack was a huge distraction, and detracted greatly from the experience.

I gave it a 3 or 4 out of 10.

EDIT: Just to be clear, the fact that I didn't think a movie was good doesn't mean that I didn't like the class. This isn't just about getting together to watch movies. We're trying to get an understanding of the genre, its history and personalities. Also, we are trying to get an appreciation for what makes a good movie. To do that, we also have to sere what makes a bad movie.