Interstellar Outlaws Review by Bobby LePire. Edited by Courtney McAllister.

 

So, this title just didn’t seem to exist in any way aside from the DVD I purchased based solely on the cover art and title. Google had nothing for it. IMDB basically told me the movie didn’t exist. Even Letterboxd didn’t have anything on it. Well, this 2008 flick was originally titled “Angry Planet”, and not a single site had the new alternate title listed. Coincidentally, the original bland as hell title is not only wildly inaccurate, but also pretty dumb (this isn’t a “Pitch Black” ripoff, and the planet is not sentient, so huh?). As such, I shall be referring to this by the much cooler, much more apt, and apparently nonexistent, new title of “Interstellar Outlaws”.

 

The plot is a traditional Western revenge tale, set in space:
West (Darryl Boling) is transported to the prison world N-6. Marshall Stahl (Benjamin Thomas) and his deputies- Kandinsky (Don Arrup), Kyle (James Edward Becton), Stone (Sarah Dounda), and Cub (Greg Bodine)- stumble upon him while patrolling. They take him to see Dr. Babish (Jeffrey Plunkett), to get his bio-tag, and go tell Warden Galloway (Jef Betz) of the new prisoner, who has his own android escort, Athena (Kathleen Kwan). West’s roommate Luther (Jason Howard), becomes his entry point into this society. As he meets the rest of the prisoners- including Malenya (Diana Ferrante), Hurka (Alana Jackler), and Roland (Vincent Marano), a master plan reveals itself.

 

The very first shot of the movie, set just above the planet, has some of the worst CGI I have ever seen. The spaceship transporting West is so poorly textured and rendered that it recalls early 1970s and ‘80s attempts. Sadly, the CGI throughout doesn’t improve much. There’s fire, smoke, lens flare, and a battle droid; and only the battle droid has any real weight or texture to it. Seriously guys, the CGI in this movie, created by Brian Schiavo, will make you laugh harder and harder with each appearance.

 

The cinematography, by writer/ director Andrew Bellware, is actually very good, striking a nice balance between the expansive landscapes, and the tight corridors of the few habitable buildings remaining behind the force field (to keep out the irradiated mutants). However, as a stylized choice- I guess- he decided to use a yellow filter over everything; so scenes in which the eight suns (best not to think about that too hard) are blazing through windows are so overexposed, washed out, and glaringly bright, it makes not only background action hard to see, but the characters themselves, as well. The yellow filter does disappear for all the flashback sequences, where we get a blue one! Improvement, I guess.

 

The editing, courtesy of Maria Ekio Macuaga, is a mixed bag. When not involving any sort of fight, the editing is good, and finds a pace to fit the mood early on. However, all the fights are so schizophrenically  edited to hell, making it hard to figure out who everyone is, where they are firing, and exactly who they are firing at. But the editing and cinematography used when some of the prisoners go crazy (because it is never night there, along with other spoilery elements), are awesome- fades to black, with flashes of ghoulish imagery, corpse faces, and the like; it gives the movie a solid visual foundation.

 

Costume designer Michael Bevins helps immeasurably in bringing the dusty, old, and largely ignored society and its inhabitants to life. The inmates have tattered robes and very basic, quite dirty vests, or just ripped up pants. The deputies are slightly cleaner, showcasing a wider variety of clothing; also, they have more traditional Western garb- long dusters, cowboy hats, gun holsters, etc. The doctor has a very professional suit and tie look, and Galloway is a cross between them all. The amount of work put into this showcases some real talent.

 

All the actors do a competent job, with Daryl Boling being quite good as the hero. His face when he reveals his true self to Luther, with its wry smile and nod, is quite satisfying. Jason Howard makes for a believably repetent bad guy, and Jef Betz is despicable. The score is annoying for the most part, but the sound design of the gadgetry is pretty cool.

 

After the ship lands (?) in the very beginning, West is somehow not on it (it seems as if new prisoners just get dropped off, literally dropped, but that is more of a best guess than any concrete knowledge), and is lying in the desert. The marshal and deputies of the prison stumble upon him, only to have the Corvette class android Athena appear from behind some rocks. Instead of trying to figure anything out, the deputies’ first reaction is to get out their guns and be all macho and dumb. This makes zero sense! Whenever a new prison arrives, do they also want to shoot first? It’s an awkward introduction, that really strains the credibility of how this prison planet society works. Then the marshal goes to inform the warden, who spews on about how the Terran Bureaucracy must have handed them one hell of a prisoner, if he has such an escort. If that is the case, then again, why is trying to kill her your minions’ first inkling?

 

As you can tell, straight from the start, this movie’s plot backs itself into an odd, and laughable corner. However, once things are established, the story takes some very interesting twists and turns, that surprisingly kept me riveted. I won’t give too much away, but the way in which West chooses to slowly implement his plan, and how he gets the guards to feud amongst themselves is all quite clever. How he slowly asks questions about the characters’ lives and how they all got here; seeing him then use this information to exact his vengeance is quite satisfying. There’s a scene where he’s talking to his roommate (since the whole planet is a desert, there are no cells proper), Luther, and getting him to discuss his time on N-6 years before the war turned it into a barren wasteland. The tidbits he extracts, and how he gets Luther in the end, is ingenious.

 

Bellware, along with co-writer Mac Rogers, understand the well worn threads of the standard Western tale, and get some nice milage out of changing up every now and then. While the movie does have some predictable twists (most involving Malenya), they are able to switch enough of them up to keep it unique. Each prisoner has a ‘bio-tag’ that alerts the law enforcers to their whereabouts at all times, and how this comes into play in regards to West is smart payoff.

 

This is ultra low budget, even by Asylum or Syfy channel standards. And, in part because of the budget, there are things about this movie that are bad, usually laughably so. However, the story is engaging, with the twists and turns proving to be rather sly and cunning, the actors are solid, and the visual style is interesting. Prepare to laugh at it a bit, but then prepare be surprisingly engrossed in the outcome.