"The Lost Voyage" is a pretty decent and mildly interesting entry.
**SPOILERS**
Recruited for his wild theories, Aaron Roberts, (Judd Nelson) is approached by sensationalist reporter Dana Elway, (Janet Gunn) and her crew, Julie Largo, (Scarlett Chorvat) and Randall Banks, (Richard Gunn) to go with them on a special assignment. With the discovery of a long-lost ocean liner, the news team, along with representatives David Shaw, (Lance Henriksen) Dazinger, (Jeff Kober) and Ian Fields, (Mark Sheppard) arrive at the ship and prepare to document what happened to it. Trying to prepare the ship for salvage, they all descend into the bowels of the ship when they start to experience weird events on-board. When the events start to bring about their mysterious deaths, they try to leave the ship to no avail. Wondering what to do to get off the ship, they discover the true intentions of what is going on and race their intentions of getting off.
The Good News: This here wasn't all that bad when it really came down to it. This does have a really creepy and quite nice air of menace surrounding it. The legend about the ship's disappearance is a little chilling, and at the same time believable and not all that far from truth. That could easily happen in real life under the right circumstances which is nicely needed. The ship itself is quite creepy, as there's a really prominent rusted feeling that covers the wall and floors, the darkened hallways and completely eerie feeling generated from them all combine with each other to create a really great atmosphere throughout. The fact that there's a few great suspense scenes makes it even better. The main one in the nursery room is just down-right creepy, and is just full of just simply chilling and full of great ideas. There's one scene in particular which is the perfect example of being just spine-chilling. This also happens to have some really good death scenes. There's a pretty nice suspense moment that comes from a superb sequence that results in a spectacular death by electrocution and eventual electrical fire that reduces the victim to a pile of charred bones, exploding glass shards impaling in the chest, a head crushed under a falling anchor-head, a victim turned into dust and bones from malevolent touch and more in here, which results in some bloody thrills as well. It's not overtly bloody, but just enough to count, and that's what matters. The film's other really nice piece was that the pace wasn't bad. This, for the most part, is fairly well-paced and manages to keep interest in it throughout. That's a nice indication, and one that really combines with the other factors into creating a pretty decent film.
The Bad News: There's a few problems with this one. One of the film's biggest problems is that the ending is completely out of touch with the film's intent. This one comes out with a really weird and off-the-wall science fiction style ending that plays a large part with really bad CGI that is really obvious. This clashes completely with it's really eerie tone throughout the beginning that creates a really intense belief in realism that is almost completely destroyed by it's light and hokey ending. The tension was realistically delivered, and this one move here pretty much takes that off the good points it had earned through the realism. Another real problem is that there's a really weird payoff that doesn't really connect with the film. These are the hallucinations that occur during the trips below deck. While it was obvious that the ghosts were malevolent, due to their killing, having them at several points become experts at mind games when they've been shown to be good at freak accidents is a little off-putting. The only other flaw is that there's a really cheesy quality here that can be picked up on by those who are looking for it, but this isn't a noticeable detriment if not being looked for.
The Final Verdict: With only a few minor flaws in this one, it's not that bad of a film and does have some good moments with it. There's even to recommend this one to the ones who enjoy the Sci-Fi Channel originals or the plain curious due to it's topic, though those who are not so much fans should exceed caution.
Rated R: Graphic Violence and Language
**SPOILERS**
Recruited for his wild theories, Aaron Roberts, (Judd Nelson) is approached by sensationalist reporter Dana Elway, (Janet Gunn) and her crew, Julie Largo, (Scarlett Chorvat) and Randall Banks, (Richard Gunn) to go with them on a special assignment. With the discovery of a long-lost ocean liner, the news team, along with representatives David Shaw, (Lance Henriksen) Dazinger, (Jeff Kober) and Ian Fields, (Mark Sheppard) arrive at the ship and prepare to document what happened to it. Trying to prepare the ship for salvage, they all descend into the bowels of the ship when they start to experience weird events on-board. When the events start to bring about their mysterious deaths, they try to leave the ship to no avail. Wondering what to do to get off the ship, they discover the true intentions of what is going on and race their intentions of getting off.
The Good News: This here wasn't all that bad when it really came down to it. This does have a really creepy and quite nice air of menace surrounding it. The legend about the ship's disappearance is a little chilling, and at the same time believable and not all that far from truth. That could easily happen in real life under the right circumstances which is nicely needed. The ship itself is quite creepy, as there's a really prominent rusted feeling that covers the wall and floors, the darkened hallways and completely eerie feeling generated from them all combine with each other to create a really great atmosphere throughout. The fact that there's a few great suspense scenes makes it even better. The main one in the nursery room is just down-right creepy, and is just full of just simply chilling and full of great ideas. There's one scene in particular which is the perfect example of being just spine-chilling. This also happens to have some really good death scenes. There's a pretty nice suspense moment that comes from a superb sequence that results in a spectacular death by electrocution and eventual electrical fire that reduces the victim to a pile of charred bones, exploding glass shards impaling in the chest, a head crushed under a falling anchor-head, a victim turned into dust and bones from malevolent touch and more in here, which results in some bloody thrills as well. It's not overtly bloody, but just enough to count, and that's what matters. The film's other really nice piece was that the pace wasn't bad. This, for the most part, is fairly well-paced and manages to keep interest in it throughout. That's a nice indication, and one that really combines with the other factors into creating a pretty decent film.
The Bad News: There's a few problems with this one. One of the film's biggest problems is that the ending is completely out of touch with the film's intent. This one comes out with a really weird and off-the-wall science fiction style ending that plays a large part with really bad CGI that is really obvious. This clashes completely with it's really eerie tone throughout the beginning that creates a really intense belief in realism that is almost completely destroyed by it's light and hokey ending. The tension was realistically delivered, and this one move here pretty much takes that off the good points it had earned through the realism. Another real problem is that there's a really weird payoff that doesn't really connect with the film. These are the hallucinations that occur during the trips below deck. While it was obvious that the ghosts were malevolent, due to their killing, having them at several points become experts at mind games when they've been shown to be good at freak accidents is a little off-putting. The only other flaw is that there's a really cheesy quality here that can be picked up on by those who are looking for it, but this isn't a noticeable detriment if not being looked for.
The Final Verdict: With only a few minor flaws in this one, it's not that bad of a film and does have some good moments with it. There's even to recommend this one to the ones who enjoy the Sci-Fi Channel originals or the plain curious due to it's topic, though those who are not so much fans should exceed caution.
Rated R: Graphic Violence and Language