Beyond White Space (2018) User Reviews

Mediocre but could have been worse

[grantss · 4/10 · 30 August 2020]

It is the 22nd Century. The USS Essex is travelling in the furthest reaches of the known Universe when it encounters a gigantic creature. It is then boarded by pirates who take their cargo and most of their supplies. The crew decide to capture the creature to make up for their loss of cargo.

I had low expectations for this movie. From the cast and crew you can tell it is very likely to be B-grade. The only known face among them all is Holt McCallany, of Mindhunter fame. Yet the movie isn't that bad.

Well, it's still not good, just not as bad as it could have been. Plot is basic but doesn't go off in too many detours. Direction isn't great but is functional. Characters are stereotypical but don't get cartoonish. Dialogue manages to avoid being cringeworthy. Some performances are pretty lame but most are okay.

Overall, not great but better than expected.

Watchable if you love scifi

[jason-43216 · 3/10 · 8 January 2019]

The visual affects are awesome, sets are awesome, production quality is great, acting is good, the score is decent, the directing is poor the script is bad.

This could have been fantastic action adventure tragedy movie, but to me, it feels like a balloon that never gets completely inflated, and the air is slowly let out, leaving me feeling frustrated, confused and annoyed.

We are introduced to the Captain and his motivations, through a flashback. Then another shortcut to introduce the rest of his crew through a 'most wanted' summary.

Perhaps it was poorly edited to cut runtime, but I never felt anything for the characters, their motivations were either thrust into the story, or left out completely. No ahhh! moments, no 'oh, I thought you were a good guy, but your bad!'.

The music never really adds to the suspense or helps tell the story, its just there. Its good, but all it seems to do is break the silence, rather than being a tool to tell the story.

Aliens does so much with so little, yet this movie does so little with so much.

Still, its worth watching, just because it actually exists. *First review I've posted on IMDB.

Poor Ishmael.

[S_Soma · 3/10 · 15 December 2018]

Well, hush my mouth and call me Ishmael. It's Moby Dick in outer space. Seriously. It's Moby Dick in outer space. And, wow, the "reimagining" just doesn't work.

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of BEYOND WHITE SPACE is how the sum total of the movie is so much less than the sum of its parts. The sets are good, the outer space CGI is at least adequate to purpose and a bit better, the monsters are new and so on. General production values are quite high. A lot of the acting is subpar but there's a few namebrand actors that acquit themselves satisfactorily. Holt McCallany (the Capt. Ahab of BEYOND WHITE SPACE), as an example is definitely a well-established actor with a collection of credits as long as your arm.

But BEYOND WHITE SPACE is just a poorly transplanted story wrapped in pretty packaging. It's attempted parallels to MOBY DICK are just cringe worthy. There's space ambergris (I kid you not...). There's "white space" equals "white whale". Instead of losing a leg and becoming obsessed with revenge, our Capt. Ahab stand in loses a father and becomes obsessed with revenge. We have a space "whale" that swims around in space instead of water; but it still undulates its body as if it was swimming in water because... I have no idea.

We have space pirates instead of Malayan pirates. The Pequod stand-in spaceship gets destroyed in the end. We have one lone survivor female taking the place of Ishmael as the sole survivor. And the tiresome list just goes on and on. The tale of obsession to ruin worked on the ocean with a whale and a whaling ship; not so much in outer space with a spaceship.

Oh, sure, there were a few additions to make it more science-fiction-y. We have space parasites and giant space crabs (or something) and a mystical "white space" that magically acts as a cure-all for whatever ails you, but this tacked on stuff does not save the picture but rather pushes its envelope of cringey mess out even further.

If you're starving for some science-fiction then BEYOND WHITE SPACE is probably "okay" to watch simply because its production values are so high. But I would recommend watching it with a ginger ale just to keep the contents of your stomach in your stomach.

Awful Mess

[claudio_carvalho · 2/10 · 10 August 2020]

"Beyond White Space" is one of those films that the viewer regrets the time he or she spent watching it. The story is senseless and with illogical attitudes from the characters; the screenplay is a complete mess, without any character development and beginning in an action scene. There are certainly many fake reviews promoting this flick in IMDb that disappoints even fans of sci-fi. Again, do not waste your time watching this movie; you will regret. My vote is two.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

Special Effects Are Great - The Plot, Not So Much

[wmhogg · 1/10 · 6 May 2019]

If this were a showreel for special effects instead of a purported sci-fi movie, this would have probably earned 4 ot 5 stars.

Instead, this is a movie with the necessary components of plot and actors, and that was the writer and director's downfall. The actors are probably good and their shortfalls can be blamed entirely on the awfulness of the script.

This movie opens up so many possibilities in the beginning, with diverse characters, and seemingly unrelated back-stories, all just waiting for the movie to tie them all together into one epic tale.

What a disappointment. The different plot lines are left dangling and unexplored. And those of us hoping to understand the title are not rewarded in any meaningful way.

White space was supposed to be a place that was guarded by the creature(s) and had mystical qualities. Of course, we don't know why such a place would be off-limits execpt that is perhaps the gates of heaven, a place of cleansing and healing, or related to "white holes" (take your pick).

There is no "white space". There is no "beyond white space". The only person who comes near traveling in the white space ends up in normal space. That certainly puts an end to the gates of heaven and white hole theories.

The only real relationship between this disaster and Moby Dick is the thinly veiled references to it, including a statue of a white whale in the captain's office and pithy half-quotes that most of us know best from "The Wath of Khan".

A suprising indie movie

[danfurtado-11221 · 4/10 · 27 May 2019]

I wanted to watch a movie on night and came across a low budget space movie I haven't heard of.

I must say this movie was pretty good for what it is, for an indie film it surprised me how well the sets and locations looked, The interior of the ship looked believable and the scenes in space were pretty well shot.

The plot is moby dick in space with the whale being a gigantic alien creature modeled after the cosmic dragon in Chinese mythology, which was pretty interesting. The plot was a bit all over the place and their was a weird slasher bit towards the end of the movie that was pretty dumb.

The acting isn't great but not so bad that it detracts from the movie, all the characters feel like they fit and are believable.

It's worth a watch and I think the imdb rating is a bit low especially if you are a fan of sci-fi.

It's a completely passable space movie that's pretty average that will keep you invested and not bored.

Just say no

[romneymeredith · 1/10 · 4 May 2021]

Production value was there but the plot and screenplay were really confusing, with nothing compelling in the whole movie except to find out what 'white space' or what was beyond it actually was. Want to know the ending? The ICE agent (I'm not kidding) gets into a space pod as the ship the Essex was being destroyed by the space 'dragon' and she escapes and enters a blinding white space and then was later ejected out as searchers somehow found her. That was it - we saw nothing, the dragon was gone and everyone else died. Infuriating that they couldn't even give the ending meaning.

I'll point out the Moby Dick elements that other reviewers didn't mention. The ship's captain's quarters had a figure of a white whale hanging on the wall and a model of a whale ship on a desk. The spaceship he captains is called the Essex, which was the name of an actual whaleship that was struck and sunk by an enraged sperm whale in 1820 in the Southern Pacific - of the 20 man crew, only 8 survived because they resorted to cannibalism. The first mate on that ship survived and had the first name of Owen, the same first name of the movie's captain's brother who was also the first mate of the spaceship. Part of the plot involves the captain's father who was killed when the dragon destroyed HIS spaceship, the Acushnet - that just happens to be the first whaleship that the author of Moby Deck (Herman Mellville) ever crewed on. At the end, part of Melville's Moby Dick famous quotation was directed at the dragon by the captain: "To the last, I grapple with thee; From Hell's heart, I stab at thee; For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee." He spoke the 'spit' part. Finally, as you probably realized by now the Essex whaleship sinking was the inspiration for Moby Dick.

Bullsnot ending

[junkmail-03930 · 2/10 · 28 May 2019]

Seems like this Visual Effect guy thinks he's a writer and expects to have a sequel to this garbage.

I hate non-endings

Moby dick + deadliest catch meets space

[IamJustTellingyouWhatIthink · 6/10 · 14 December 2018]

This is obviously B-movie fare. The actors, the story, even the whole idea is very much not top of the line.

BUT the production values are surprisingly good. I was frankly amazed at how well the CGI and sets stood up compared to the rest of the movie. The creatures are not as well made as the rest of the CGI, but still a fair notch above standard B movie quality.

If you are a scifi geek the world it is set in is enough to see it. The story itself is kind of lame. 5 stars for sets, CGI and space. 1 star for all the rest.

PS The guy saying that the effects are bad obviously wrote his review based on the poster and name of the movie.. No way he watched it.

Way less than the sub of it's parts

[fxdx4 · 4/10 · 6 February 2019]

I watched this film because it seemed to be a remake/homage to Moby Dick. Well, if Moby Dick is one of the most iconic novels of all time, this film is a washed up mess.

B movie sci-fi films are notoriously bad. They either are so low budget at they are silly, or they come from an Aliens rip off. Beyond White Space is bad for altogether different reasons - a total lack of story telling.

Lets start with what I did enjoy. The effects are better than I expected, the cast is likeable... that's about it.

What is wrong is a total lack of continuity, the ability to build a story, logic of characters or actions or payoff.

The main plot (for no one could count the number of extra sub plots floating around this film) is that an ancient space creature needs to be hunted for some reason; and space pirates are in there somewhere, and space cops? After this, I stopped caring very quickly. The film just does not make sense, and what is even worse is that it becomes anti climactic.

Aside from the total lack of plot, story telling and logic, it is actually not the worse film I have seen so far in 2019, so there is that going for it. I mean, you have been warned, but at least it isn't a very long film. I did give it a 4, so it's only bad. Go chase that whale!

Very decent sci-fi with a few edit errors before the end

[macshrikemobile · 8/10 · 15 December 2018]

It is indeed Moby dick meets pacific rim critters that read about knights of Sidonia. Nevertheless I really enjoyed most of it. GFX are way up there, acting is good, story is good enough, fails on the execution at 3/4 but picks up at the very end. I think they had too many idea's and all had to be edited into the last 3/4 before the climax. If you are on weed you might not even notice =) Enjoyed it but also, next time, polish it up more and get a 10. <B

Its surprisingly good for a sci-fi space flick.

[madsyy · 7/10 · 15 December 2018]

I have a thing for space movies. The trailer seemed reasonable. So I checked out the movie & Oh boy! the VFX is awesome & top notch for such an obscure movie. Then I looked into the director filmography & this guy seems to be the VFX supervisor for many popular films. I guess that's the reason the graphics are a top notch Story wise its so-so but its definitely a popcorn free-time watch if you are into sci-fi, space action flicks.

Good concept but Worst movie

[kalpeshgala · 2/10 · 18 May 2020]

Acting is very poor.. no character gets any platform to make any impact... Story logic is screwed up.. fight scenes with dragons are confusing.. not filmed well.. brass telescope in this high tech spaceship!! .. all high techs can not locate one person on the ship!!... Hot pilot does only some repeating stupid actions in the name of flying Couple of bang scenes but nothing is shown No crew member does any actual ship work.. they are just roaming around, eating, drinking and banging

Only good points are hot chicks and good space scenes and spaceships

A movie with an identity crisis.

[machrf · 1/10 · 30 December 2021]

This movie does not know what it wants to be. Is it Aliens, Moby Dick in space, Space Pirates, Sex in the Space Locke room or Serenity? It does not know. I feel bad for the actors. Despite all the people complaining about the acting I think they did a fantastic job of presenting a ludicrous plot line as a serious scenario. Their acting was far better than a B movie. I also agree that the special effects was top notch in this movie. This movie did not fail due to lack of effort. This movie failed due to the ridiculous concept of space creatures.

In my opinion, the only series to successfully portray life in space was Farscape. It too, had points regarding Moya that had to be overlooked in order to enjoy the series. Star Trek had tried to broach this topic and only succeeded, just barely, due to the cast and the recurring episodes to follow. If you concentrated only on those few episodes, it would not make the cut.

The writer took a chance in presenting a topic that was very difficult to convince viewers of its plausibility. Horror films have a far greater chance to have audiences accept the impossible due to fear of the moment. This movie did not know what it was and does not appear to have had horror as the main point. It seems to be an science fiction adventure movie with an impossible plot.

Low budget means low sense, low logic ?

[pkpera · 2/10 · 29 January 2019]

So, another first direction from some specialist in movie making business - in this case CGI effect maker. I think that direction was not that bad, but story ... Really something worst I had misfortune to experience. Yep - writer and director is same person. And that must be not good thing in case of beginner.

Dragons in space, vacuum ... why not, that's something new - let's do it ! Idiot commander ? Why not ! Add to it some family story, some agent, some romance and other 'so inventive' subplots, and you made 90 minute movie.

And for those, who managed to watch all it 'till finish, there is a nice reward at the end - I will not spoil it if say - hard to believe, but even stupider than all what was before. Just one of those movies where will not remember anything of it after couple weeks. Except bad taste. OK, whoever did cast 3 girls had good taste :-) That's why I give it 2.

Not Too Bad

[Tweetienator · 4/10 · 20 August 2021]

Beyond White Space is no bad movie (for sure not the worst movie ever, like some reviewers claim) but also no good one - some parts are fun, some are rather boring. Acting and production are B-movie style, so if you like movies about space adventures and you need something new on your screen, you may give this Moby Dick "light" a try. The idea of hunting for "space whales" to feed mankind is of course cheese deluxe.

Every cliché you would expect

[ggrgou · 2/10 · 22 May 2019]

This movie comprises very cliché you would expect from a low budget movie and is still able to surprise you with all the inconsistencies you can expect from works in this category - from the holes in the script and the development of characters down to the ridiculous ending.

I expected white space!

[harelives · 5/10 · 16 December 2018]

As the name implies, I expected it to go beyond white space. But sadly it just stayed in the black space. I saw a potential of good character development but it lead to nothing. But it has this unexplainable thing that keeps Sci-Fi people like us watching. Maybe it is the name.

Good effort from Ken Locsmandi

[dcerisano-27495 · 7/10 · 15 December 2018]

Ken Locsmandi has a long and impressive background as a special effects master. Beyond White Space (BWS) was a very ambitious project for a first time director, since the story is essentially Moby Dick.

I personally love the idea of rebooting classics into the SF genre. The only problem is that they will inevitably be compared with the classics - very risky.

Moby Dick already has several excellent cinematic incarnations, most recently Heart Of The Sea. These have been big budget, big name productions able to attract seasoned directors and actors.

The special effects in BWS are top notch, as to be expected from Locsmandi. The acting however is hit and miss. This has to be laid on the director, since the actors do prove they can hit their mark occasionally.

I have a feeling too much of the budget went into CG, not filming the endless live takes of inexperienced actors required to hit the mark every time in the final cut.

Perhaps he should have cast at least one seasoned and proven actor to lead the others. It likely would have improved the overall performance. The acting seemed rushed, impatient even.

So close to being good

[horst69 · 2/10 · 25 May 2019]

I think the camera work, editing , effects, the CGI environment and other CGI work were very good . Even the story isn't bad at all .

That's very rare for a Scifi movie without a massive budget .

For me it really fell short when it came to the characters . The dialogues, maybe the way the characters were written or directed, it felt hollow and cheap. The actors wern't horrible, not good either, but the casting was way off . The captain and the old guy most obviously, the rest of them as well to some degree .

There are better actors, and actors who would have been a better fit for their respective roles, without increasing the budget . Casting is an art in of itself, and the people responsible here didn't have the skills to get it right .

I guess there is a reason why some decent movies are merely watchable, like this one, and some movies are good or even great despite having a similar budget and some main ingredients are no better or even worse .

You just can't get any of those main ingredients completely wrong, and this movie is guilty of that re. the casting and characters .

Still very watchable though, just a shame about the avoidable shortcomings .

Finally some top notch special effects

[kaefab · 8/10 · 14 December 2018]

This movie is nothing new but still a great addition to the sci fi gender, and finally we don't get cheap asylum like special effects.

I was very impressed with the quality of the effects, creatures, space ship, even how space looks, the acting is ok nothing super, the story is not bad either.

I really hope its the new standard for sci fi movies and they will put some good effort in the effects not giving us cheap CG.

Enjoyable and a lot less hopeless as I expected it to be.

[Snabeldyhr · 6/10 · 10 January 2019]

The movie is far from perfect and I certainly didn't expect much from it, but I found it to be quite enjoyable. Yeah, so it's basically Moby Dick in space, on a low budget, with an underdeveloped script and questionable acting, but I didn't go in expecting Lawrence of Arabia ... and compared to some of the sci-fi-dross out there this one is not too bad. I didn't really like the sudden slasher element introduced towards the end - that was weird and underexplained, and didn't fit in at all, but overall I liked the movie.

That could have been a good film, but meh.

[permaculture-45885 · 3/10 · 29 January 2019]

The acting is below average. Nothing makes sense. There are lifeforms in space, mostly edible giant carnivorous crabs you can bait with crystal and repel with fire extinguisher. And ludicrous Chinese dragons that wail like whales slithering where there's no water.

There are only three chicks aboard, and they are hot. Two are from the regular crew and are banging with the black dude. Hard. One is the cook, and she's covered with tattoos, has messy hair and... issues.

All the nooks of the ship are dirty. The kitchen is a pigsty I'd not even take a dump in. Cuz ya know, they're societal trash, so, they like to live in the dirt and never wash anything.

There are pirates in space but the ship has no canons.

I understand the reference to the ol'book of lore, but they all fall short. Who needs a brass telescope on a starship ? And a cavalry saber ?

That could have been a good film, but meh.

Lack of merit

[FounHUGO · 2/10 · 31 December 2018]

The space setting is childish, the actors and performances are unsatisfactory, the story structure and the lens language are confusing, the characters are not normal, and the logic is not clear... In short, there is no merit in all aspects.

the worst sci-fi film i ever watched

[omar-general · 1/10 · 6 January 2020]

I thought it will be a nice sci-fi movie but i found it really terrible nothing good in it even the acting and it is overrated movie it doesn't deserve that rate its wast of time