Six young computer hackers, sent to work on a derelict spaceship, are forced to match wits with a vengeful artificial intelligence that would kill to be human.Six young computer hackers, sent to work on a derelict spaceship, are forced to match wits with a vengeful artificial intelligence that would kill to be human.Six young computer hackers, sent to work on a derelict spaceship, are forced to match wits with a vengeful artificial intelligence that would kill to be human.
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaJason Momoa (I Am) previously co-starred with the director David Hewlett in Stargate: Atlantis (2004). They played Ronon Dex and Dr. Rodney McKay, respectively.
- GoofsAt about 1 hour Capra is chopped in half by a door. at 1:01 when the door reopens there is no blood on the door.
- Quotes
Lara: There is a lot of rogue programs to shut down. The system's riddled with them.
Diondra: Sweet. Time for some fun.
James: With what?
Diondra: The rogues. Over time some of them loose their thread. They don't know they're just programs.
James: That doesn't bother you?
Diondra: No. You get them talking, give them some hope and erase them line by line. It's like tearing wings off flies.
- Crazy credits"Environmental" is misspelled as "Enviromental" in the end credits cast list.
- ConnectionsSpoofs The Wizard of Oz (1939)
To its credit, Debug manages to stand up fairly well in quite a few aspects and punches well above its budget in terms of production values.
The acting is all right, with the exception of Jason Momoa's campy creep performance as I Am. Perhaps, already having achieved fame as Khal Drogo in Game of Thrones, he did not feel the same need to distinguish himself as the other actors. Perhaps the role simply did not suit him. Either way, the lacklustre sleaze he brings to the role cheapens and stifles all tension and drama whenever he is on screen. Jeananne Goossen and Sidney Leeder, in contrast, bring life and character to their roles, whereas the rest of the cast is simply passable.
The visuals in Debug are not without flaws, but they are at times gorgeous. (The HUD effects, in particular, stand out.) Sadly, they sometimes fail to impart a feeling of reality—of substance. Future technology may be clean and durable, but any surface will have wear and tear. In Debug, they tend to look like freshly moulded plastic—featureless and flimsy. Strangely, this does not seem to be down to capability so much as aesthetics, as it is true for the set as much as the CGI. As a whole, though, the visuals work, and most of the time the set and the CGI fit well together.
Sound effects are generally fair to pretty damned good, although they tend to fail to produce a sense of presence. The same goes for the score, which seems to have been mixed as so to be unobtrusive rather than evocative—a strange choice for a horror film.
All in all, it would seem Debug has enough good points to provide a solid horror experience. (After all, many films have done so with less.) As sci-fi horror is a genre I love and the space-based variety is woefully underrepresented, it disheartens me to say that it does not—and for rather bizarre reasons. You see, while the production would have worked well for a sci-fi drama, its manner of presentation promotes detachment rather than immersion. The tension never grabs you and events never draw you in, making the actual horror elements fall flat. Part of it is editing, but choices made in seemingly every aspect of the film—from character exposition to camera angles—exacerbate the problem. The effect, tragically, is an audience indifference this type of narrative can ill afford, making a film that could have, should have been a rough gem turn out to be just another barren space rock.
Debug is, in the end, a mediocre film with several massive, bulky cargo holds full of wasted potential due to an almost mindless indifference to the core driver of every good horror film—atmosphere.
- mynameisdetonation
- Nov 3, 2014
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- How long is Debug?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Runtime1 hour 26 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1