By Becca Johnson September 18, 2024
Funded entirely on Kickstarter, Ghost Planet is a sci-fi adventure from director Philip J. Cook (Despiser). Starring Joe Mayes (A Christmas Cancellation), Mark Hyde (Singularity) and Claudia Troy. Ghost Planet, currently streaming on Tubi in the UK, has clear budget limitations where the visuals are concerned, but manages to entertain in true B-movie fashion with a competent story.
Synopsis
Ghost Planet follows a group of astronauts who venture into a mysterious planet to claim the find of a century.
Review
It’s plain from the first few minutes that the visuals are one of Ghost Planet’s weakest elements. It’s nice to see a film of this calibre take a bold approach with its aesthetic, attempting to transport viewers into a rich sci-fi world. However, it is quite distracting that the world doesn’t completely come together visually, taking away from the experience with its computer-generated background. It does have some charm to it that a handful of viewers may enjoy, but in reality, the live action actors paired with the flat CGI background don’t make for a visually interesting viewing. From a technical standpoint, Ghost Planet’s saving grace is the costume design. It’s not perfect by any means, but certainly looks the part in terms of the world building they’re trying to achieve.
Ghost Planet’s script is rather hit or miss. The plot itself is actually pretty competent, presenting a simple yet effective story surrounding a group of astronauts who stumble upon a solitary survivor whilst on a mission. Soon turning into a cat-and-mouse chase as our cast of characters wind up with relentless mercenary pirates on their trail, once the story kicks into gear, it’s fairly fast paced and palatable. The characters are fine enough, with some decent family dynamics between them that elevate the story. However, the dialogue severely weakens the efforts of the story, as every line delivered by our characters is pulpy, uninspired and underdeveloped. With cringe-worthy one liners, awkward speech and a lack of true emotion, it really could’ve been improved with a re-write or two. Not only is the dialogue corny but majorly predictable, clearly taking inspiration from many places and not having much unique edge of its own. From a story perspective, the writing is passable, but as far as the dialogue is concerned, it leaves much to be desired.
Our cast of actors certainly do enough to provide entertainment, though unfortunately, the script doesn’t give them a great deal to work with or help them show their range. Joe Mayes stands out the most in his role as Max Stone, and provides an interesting character to follow. Claudia Troy is also notable. The main issue here is the lack of chemistry, which sticks out all the more given that many members in our team of astronauts are related. Whether they are portraying a close bond or a slightly rocky one, it’s not entirely believable, and there’s little emotion or urgency floating around them. The line delivery is extremely wooden from everyone involved, which doesn’t do the sub-par dialogue any favours. It doesn’t often look like our cast actually want to be on set, as there’s not much oomph behind these performances.
This is a mixed bag, and will only be suited to particular audiences. Often leaning into it’s corniness enough to make it strangely enjoyable, there is a lot of B-movie charm in Ghost Planet that boasts ‘so bad it’s good’ appeal. The story at play is also easy to follow and pretty cohesive, if quite simplistic. Unfortunately, Ghost Planet is almost completely let down by its poorly written and delivered dialogue, that feels very lacklustre against the bold and out-there location. The visuals are also disappointing, taken you out of the story with its overly digital look. Ghost Planet has the ideas, but stumbles with the execution.
Star Rating
Ghost Planet is available now on Tubi
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