DVD Review: SPACE WARS: QUEST FOR THE DEEPSTAR

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Feb 04 Posted by Kyle Nolan in DVD/Blu-ray, Reviews | Comments

It’s the year 2980, and scientists have found a way to prologue life indefinitely—as long as the essence is extracted from the recently-deceased, they can be brought back in the form of a cyborg-human hybrid that is indistinguishable from the original—though it’s an expensive process, and one that’s usually reserved for the rich and powerful. Kip Corman (Michael Paré), his wife Lacey (Elise Muller) and their daughter Taylor (Sarah French) were once a wealthy family of adventurers. However, while exploring a remote planet, their ship crashed, and Lacey was killed. Kip had his wife’s essence extracted, but ran out of funds before he could complete the resurrection process. So now he travels the galaxy with his daughter, doing scavenger and delivery work for corrupt trading post owner Elnora (Sadie Katz), hoping get enough credits to bring back Lacey.

Elnora has never really been a fan of Kip, and when he steals a rare coin belonging to her, that’s the last straw. She sends her son Ezekiel (Hunter Setian) and two other ships to find Kip, kill him and get her artifact back. Meanwhile, Kip and Taylor end up at a seemingly-abandoned space station, where they discover lonely scientist Jackie (Anahit Setian). She tells them that that she is being pursued by a team of mercenaries, led by the evil Dykstra (Olivier Gruner). They want information on how to find the mythical lost freighter, The Deepstar, which is said to contain untold riches. Kip ad Taylor agree to help Jackie find the lost ship first—this could be the score they have been looking for to bring back Lacey. However, this means they now find themselves being pursued by two different gangs of pirates looking to take them out.

Space Wars: Quest for the Deepstar is a low budget but entertaining film that feels like a throwback to space adventure films of the 1980s, such as Spacehunter or Battle Beyond the Stars. You’ve got the cocky, rogue captain and his tough but smart daughter out on a space adventure, being pursued by the bad guys, and along the way they deal with various deadly creatures, ship malfunctions/issues, and more. There’s this great chemistry between Michael Paré and Sarah French, who really feel like they could be father and daughter. And when the duo gets into trouble, they are ready and able to kick some butt. However, my favorite character may actually be Anahit Setian’s Jackie, who is such a delight, and adds a lot of levity to the film, making a really fun third party to join the crew. No matter what danger the ship and its crew get into, Jackie always seems to maintain a level head. The villains can be a bit campy at times, but that’s part of the fun. There’s the over-the-top Elnora and her overly-confident son, who doesn’t really have the skills to back up his bravado—he’s already died and been resurrected several times. And then there’s the pirate mercenaries, all dressed in black, so you know they’re bad. Leader Dykstra knows Elnora well and they are two peas in a pod. He’s joined by Nina (Rachele Brooke Smith), who has a bit of a crush on her boss; the ruthless Wade (Tyler Gallant), who takes pleasure in killing; and the dimwitted Manx (Jed Rowen) who dresses in animal hides and refers to himself in the third person.

The acting is decent, and doesn’t feel like an amateur production. The characters are a lot of fun, and they are given a chance to develop and grow over the course of the film. The story is also interesting, and takes a few surprise turns. The effects are surprisingly decent for a low budget film. While some scenes feel obviously green-screened, in general the creatures and aliens they encounter along the way are really well done, transporting the viewer onto these ships and other planets as our crew travels through space and faces off with the bad guys.

Uncork’d Entertainment has released Space Wars: The Quest For The Deepstar on physical media on DVD, but it is also available in HD on digital. We were sent a copy of the DVD release for review. The picture quality is pretty decent, especially in close-ups, but definitely shows some of its SD quality in some of the busier scenes. There was one scene later in the film gets very pixelized for a moment. I compared this to the streaming version available on Tubi, and there is a definite improvement in detail in the HD picture, though the pixelized scene also had some issues there, so that may be the source material itself. The audio track is quite good, providing clear dialogue throughout, and making nice use of the soundscape to bring the atmosphere alive.

The DVD release includes an audio commentary by the filmmakers/stars, some deleted/alternate scenes, a fun blooper reel, and the film’s trailer. The disc is placed in a standard DVD keepcase. Our review copy did not include a slipcover. There is no digital copy included, but it is available for digital purchase, and streaming.

What’s Included:

Film: (1:30:07)

480i / Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1
Audio: English 5.1 Dolby Digital, English 2.0 Stereo
Subtitles: English

Extras:

Commentary (1:30:07)
Four of the film’s producers provide an entertaining and informative commentary throughout the film—director Garo Setian, screenwriter Joe Knetter, and stars Anahit Setian (“Jackie”) & Sarah French (“Taylor”). They talk about how the film came about—most of them had previously worked together on Automation—and discuss the story, cast, characters, costumes, sets, music, filming process, evolution of the script, improvising lines, and more. The participants share lots of fun behind-the-scenes story about the production.
Deleted Scenes (5:29)
Four collections of deleted/extended/alternate scenes play back to back:
- More Malachi – Prisoners Malachi and Kip talk to one another between their boxes. Also, more of the judge sentencing Malachi.
- More Manx – Manx arrives on the space station looking for Jackie, telling her there’s no sense in hiding from the Mighty Manx, and then he finds the bomb and tries to defuse it.
- Ezekiel Returns – In this fun alternate version of the scene, the two returning pilots hand Ezekiel in a canister to his mother, as well as some flowers for condolences, before she threatens to execute one of them.
- Elnora Hates Blue – Elnora gets stuck in a blue storm cloud.
Bloopers (4:15)
Fun with the cast and crew as they flub and forget lines, deal with constantly misbehaving props, rogue sirens and other sounds, and more.
Trailer (1:34)

Final Thoughts:

My Rating

Film:

Video:

Audio:

Extras:

Recommended

Space Wars: Quest for the Deepstar makes for a fun weekend afternoon watch, and is quite enjoyable for what it is supposed to be…a low budget space adventure movie that pays homage to similar films of the 1980s. Fans of the movie will definitely appreciate the bonus material included on the DVD, but those who wish to check out the movie before a blind buy can currently stream it for free first via Tubi!