Virtuality

2009 "Reality is only the beginning."
5.7| 1h27m| en| More Info
Released: 26 June 2009 Released
Producted By: Universal Pictures
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

Twelve extremely talented men and women have been chosen to be part of the Phaeton mission, a 10-year trek to explore a distant planetary system. In order to endure the stress of being confined to their high-tech vessel, the crew passes the time using advanced virtual reality modules that allow them to take on various identities. But as the ship approaches a critical phase of their journey, a deadly flaw is discovered in the virtual system, forcing them to question if someone onboard might be a killer.

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Reviews

AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks
Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.
Jenna Walter The film may be flawed, but its message is not.
Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...
George Orwell The elements for an original approach for the series were in this pilot but the director chose to accentuate the clichés and the popular themes instead of grabbing onto the real value. Many series that have died have tried to stretch the interest of the viewer beyond the practical – in a series, wasting many episodes on mindless action outside the arc, here, in the pilot, wasting air time with over used old ideas or overused statements.The core of the idea is at the very end where, as a few commentators have brought out, the virtuality encompassing the ship itself, or whatever the deep secret that only the commander knew and wouldn't share (the "down the rabbit hole" is the allusion to it as well). This seems to have been augmented by the vision of the evil virtual player being seen in MD garb toward the end – as well as the meta observation of not setting up how kill off the main character in a pilot when clearly he's the only one with leadership capabilities in the bunch. This scenario fits well with the lack of credibility that the crew could have passed the tests for a 10 year mission.In any case, more substantial exploration of the above virtual set up would have given more of a tease and interest. Certainly more than the naive assertion that if you throw in a gay couple you'll get an interested audience, even given that they are cooks who can't even cook , an odious psychologist whose running a reality show, and a tiresome boring phony dramatic dialog (oh how dumb was the bantering there along the way) of "go/no go" when it's clear what the answer has to be.So I give it a four because I did watch it, but it is oh so sad to see a wasted 90 minutes.
fin487 Effects are quite good - they even chose Projet Orion for their drive. Good on them.But I'm pretty sure it's JG Ballards 13 to Centaurus. Hope they paid him for the use.It's a long duration experiment that they aren't aware they are in. The psych is the only one who is cognizant and he's playing games of his own in his own little human ship in a bottle. Mission control knows this but are afraid that if they interrupt the experiment they'll damage the crew.It's not to say that this can't be a good series. (a TEN year mission? yikes. That's like ten years of Weakest Link). There are only so many plots. Let's see what they make of it. Or has Fox, in it's infinite wisdom, already decided to cancel it?
igoatabase Considering its very interesting topics saying I anticipated it is an euphemism. Covering virtual reality, space travel and reality television in a single pilot episode was a challenge and I think they successfully achieved it. However even if the few clips I saw convinced me it would be great I was a little worry about the way the writers would deal with reality elements.Their work is both inspiring and very smart because I find reality shows far too dramatic and not real enough. When they began to produce such shows I was hoping to find new tools to better understand the human's psychology but most of them are just empty shells meant to brainwash viewers. Hopefully there're also good productions like Project Runway that blend ideas very nicely. As for the Virtuality reality scenes there were quite many but most of them were short and filmed throughout a lipstick camera. It made them even more realistic, specially considering the female host looked quite superficial at first. But as in real life a coin always has an other side and it was quite emotional to discover it. So even if she looked like a Gossip Girl you should soon appreciate her for what she really is, not just an other pretty face. And in general the characters worked really well and some of them quickly grew on me as the minutes passed by. I already knew Clea DuVall wouldn't disappoint me but I was also gladly surprised by the other performers. My only complain would be the whole Benetton vibe because in some way it made the reality side less authentic but maybe the creators intention was to parody the other shows. It's specially true for the gay couple as sending them into space as a last hope doesn't make any sense. I found it was quite disrespectful towards the homosexual community in general as their members are often used to bring more drama. A good example would be Top Chef last season and its ridiculous "Team Rainbow". But again maybe they just wanted us to believe so. In fact that's what I really enjoyed in Virtuality, its ambivalent complexity.It leads us to the space travel topic. If you appreciate the genre and are a science howl then you'll definitely dig the few outdoor scenes, the ship design, its interior… It should also remind you of your favorite space opera film. So watching it I really felt like I was part of the crew. It's specially true considering there're many characters you can relate too. I also found the story quite inspiring because there's nothing more fascinating than following the daily life of astronauts sent into deep space to save humanity. It brought many great memories like my first battle in the Homeworld video game and of course the astonishing Battlestar Galactica miniseries. And I can reassure you that it has nothing to do with apocalyptic productions like Armageddon, even if I enjoyed it. Here the psychology is probably one of the most important element because the big question is "Will they be able to survive and reach their destination ?".Yes, because it's a lot about survival. Not the Survivor mumbo jumbo but the real and dramatic Robinson Crusoe adventure, like in Cast Away for example. I think the analogy is right because living alone on a desert island can be compared to traveling into space with a few crew members. You'll definitely miss Earth and its beautiful green and blue landscapes. Breathing the air in the morning and energizing yourself before a rising sun. All these tiny details that make you feel alive even when the weather is rainy and the mood even more sad. To solve the problem the writers decided to introduce the virtual reality module, extrapolating the novel's concept. It's supposed to be a key solution to the mission success but of course events didn't occur as expected and the virtual scenes were so disturbing, well directed and written that they actually reminded me of cult films like Event Horizon and The Lawnmower Man. The team behind Virtuality is so talented and has so many twisted ideas that they brought many refreshing and interesting elements to a topic that has already been well covered by others.All these great things made me a fan of the show even if the FOX decided not to pick it up. In fact I don't blame them because I can't imagine the pressure on their shoulders. I even call it the Carnivàle syndrome because both producers and most viewers are not ready for such a smart show. If you're accustomed to such artistic creations you shouldn't be surprised and only enjoy it for what it is, one of the best space pilot ever aired. However if you're not open minded and think Tim Burton and George A. Romero should be held into an asylum then Virtuality is definitely the wake up call you need. Yes because I recommend anyone to watch it, again and again to understand all the messages he has to deliver.
pianys I'm not a huge sci-fi fan, I'm more into drama, and this pilot seemed to me like a very clever drama. Sure, it's set on a spaceship, but that's just one of many layers to this story. I can see this story developing not just in space, but in all the various virtual reality modes that the crew tunes in to. A pilot is always about setting the stage and introducing the players, and it was some good writing that had me doubting the presumed main guy for some reason, and when we lost him, it hurt but not for long. The character is obviously not gone, and I think there are endless possibilities for this to work. Peter Berg is one of my favorite directors, I could see a bit of Friday Night Lights camera work in there, some hate that style of erratic camera work, but I happen to be fine with it. Talking camera work, the VR mode sequences were beautiful, they sucked me in, really nice stuff! So in conclusion, I really hope I will see the continuing saga unfolding, this is a great idea for a TV-show!!!