Deus (2022) User Reviews

You could do worse

[Jim_Screechy · 5/10 · 13 September 2022]

I came upon this almost by accident and rolled my eyes at it till I saw Claudia black who has some credibility, listed in the cast. She does a good job with the material and gives a great performance throughout. Her performance gives her character some depth which in truth, the screenplay seems to miss somewhat, but she can't singlehandedly carry this one off. The script needs another once over with a fresh pair of eyes if I'm honest, as much of the dialogue is like something out of a comic book, cliched, meaningless and stilted.

The story is a reasonably good one if a little predictable, but the premise is sound. However there simply isn't enough going on to keep the interest focused, and the lengthy scenes and uneventful screenplay lend little to maintain interest.

The special effects, CGI are all decent, nothing to write home about, but they don't let the movie down the way the script and story line do. I'm always a little sceptical when the writer and director are the same individual since what is perceived in creation isn't always the best way to flesh it out on film, and here my concerns are warranted. One or the other is my rule of thumb and rarely does it bode well for a creation with a single person doing both.

I think much of the films forced ambiance are due to a lacking in direction, and some of the characters are way off base. 'Grey' and 'Sen' played by Black and Blackwood are a constant source of contention with no clear command structure seemingly in place. Its an odd way to spin a relationship in space with a mission of such importance, and it neither works here nor rings true. There are other weird glitches throughout the movie and it serves only to kink the smooth flow of events as they unfold on-screen. I found it most disconcerting.

Blackwood delivers the whole compliment of his lines through clenched teeth as though he's stemming the overflow of some long held rage with great difficulty. His stiff, stoic delivery makes him stand out as the weak talent in this cast of less than ten people. Again I think this is more due to bad direction rather than a failing of his talent, but irrespective, the movie suffers as a result. David O'hara by contrast plays his character to a 'T' and the other cast members with more minor roles are accomplished enough, but forgettable.

On the whole it's not too bad, but there just isn't enough going on here to bring off the story, and some of the cliched developments really do it a disservice.

I think 5 is an honest and fair score, for what is at best, a 'watchable' movie. Its not a big production so I don't want to be overly critical knowing it couldn't have been an easy one to produce, but I think the scant flesh on the carcass of this one is its big problem. It really needed some fleshing out before being served up to feast.

Extended Dr Who episode

[jwcstorage · 3/10 · 14 September 2022]

Just finished Deus after going in blind.

The whole thing felt like a Dr Who episode, just with tons of extra padding.

The plot was quite sloppy, and the effects had a "made for TV" feeling to them. The acting was pretty meh throughout, with some strange choices being made at times (when the main character learns a major plot twist their response is pretty emotionless).

They had access to a pretty good cast, but even that was wasted.

Some of the twists throughout were kind of dumb, and the rest were painfully obvious. Many of the plot points were needless and didnt add anything to the story at all.

I'm a sucker for sci-fi but this just felt very underdeveloped, like it was a second draft that they greenlit without any rework.

This could easily have been shrunk down to a 30 minute tv episode (with commercials) and still provided all the same info.

Not really worth the time unfortunately.

Let's send immature emotional jerks to space

[bitbucketchip · 3/10 · 6 October 2022]

This is another entry in the "let's rid Earth of people we hate" space missions. A crew is shot into space to investigate a mysterious sphere.

The characters are obnoxious, offensive, and tedious. Three of the crew (a woman and two men) freak out when answers aren't immediately forthcoming even before they approach their destination. If they received any training at all, it was on the order of a two hour seminar at DeVry. There isn't one relatable character, which eliminates any chance of tension or engagement with the proceedings.

The acting is terrible, but whether that is due to the failings of actor or script is unclear. The dialog is largely superfluous, adding little or nothing to the story. Before they reach the sphere one character sagely says, in about a thousand words, "we have find out what the sphere is". Well, duh! That's the point of entire mission. Perhaps that dude on the ground should have briefed them before launching them into space. Then again, only one guy on earth is interested in their progress, and his instructions are basically: keep going.

They saved a lot of money by not having a lighting budget. The spaceship has about five watts of lighting for some reason. Everyone stumbles around in the dark.

I won't spoil the "thrilling" conclusion to the mystery. But suffice it to say you won't care one way or the other.

Three stars only because I didn't turn it off. Everything else adds a grand total of zero stars. Which puts it two stars above the horrendous Rings of Power, fake reviews notwithstanding. Three stars.

Who writes these scripts ?

[yuzhaan · 1/10 · 13 September 2022]

Wooden performances, stilted dialogues, stupid reactions, the whole gamut of idiotic clichés of amateurs trying to make something just wishes itself Scifi... Unbelievable, with the participation of two quality actors like Claudia Black and David O'Hara who should know better what's scifi and movies ! Poor lighting, subpar effects, Messianic blather...vague references to the "Event Horizon..." everything delivered in a stupid accent.... The poor sod acting the captain could not act himself out of a paper bag... he tries to act menacing and all manly, but he is only pathetic ... Incredible waste of time... not one shred of novelty, of originality or of ideas. Not one endearing quality in the whole shebang... The Black Ball of sh...!!!

Flaccid and bland space adventure...

[paul_haakonsen · 4/10 · 13 September 2022]

Now, I am not really a big fan of the sci-fi genre, but I will watch movies of said genre when given the opportunity. And with "Deus" being a movie that I had never heard about, nor seen, of course I opted to sit down and watch what writer and director Steve Stone had to offer.

And while "Deus" definitely had an interesting cover/poster and synopsis, the movie just wasn't really all that interesting. Sure, "Deus" was watchable, but it just wasn't a particularly thrilling or overly entertaining movie, as the storyline was somewhat flaccid and bland.

The acting performances in "Deus" were adequate. I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, which is usually something I enjoy when watching movies. But the actors and actresses had precious little to work with here in terms of a properly written storyline, so they didn't really have much of any chance to unfold themselves on the screen.

Visually then "Deus" was good. I liked the special effects and the CGI. And it definitely felt like the movie took place deep in space near Mars. And that added something to the movie, which was otherwise struggling with a mediocre script.

I am sure that hardcore sci-fi fans might get a kick out of a movie such as "Deus" from writer and director Steve Stone. However, as a casual viewer, then "Deus" was not an impressive or memorable movie experience.

My rating of "Deus" lands on a four out of ten stars.

What a boring movie!!

[edlc1970 · 1/10 · 13 September 2022]

2022 has brought many bad and awful movies. But this is one of most boring ones. The acting, the plot, the scenery everything stinks in this movie. It's so boring, that you start playing on your smartphone while watching this crap.

A mysterious black sphere is discovered in the orbit of Mars. The Achilles is sent to investigate. After the six-person crew wake from eight months hibernation, the Sphere is transmitting a single word in every Earth language ever known - Deus. And thats it. Nothing happens. Utter boredom. In 1979 they could make a classic like Alien. And now, in 2022 43 years later, this crap is being made. Avoid.

A movie about today's America.

[Luv2Spooge · 5/10 · 14 September 2022]

Major spoilers.

This movie is about an evil old white man with white hair who has decided to deceive the world. For over 2 years he has created a meticulous plan to cull the major population of the world in order to save the elite few, blaming the destruction of the Earth on climate change.

The sphere was a lie created in the form of salvation, to save the people. However, the protagonist in the movie came to the horrifying truth, the whole thing was a lie to drive people to their instant death. With majority of the world's population decimated, the ultimate goal of the evil white man was to establish his new world order through the great reset.

I'm not joking. This literally is the plot.

HUUUUUUGE plotholes! Also very pretty to watch

[androidbee · 3/10 · 16 September 2022]

Ok so here's a spoiler:

why bother blowing up the sphere? It's nothing more than a figurehead. It controls nothing on earth, gazillions of people are already jumping into the arches, they were gonna blow up the sphere anyway, why bother? They aren't accomplishing anything that will make any difference on earth.

Also there would obviously be a self-destruct on the little habitat module or whatever it's called, so why bother trying to use it to go back to earth?

As far as looks go, it's a pretty film. Too dark in places, makes it frustrating to get a feel for what the sphere is like. And as others mentioned, if they can self-assemble a small-moon sized sphere, why not other super useful things that would save humanity? What a dumb plan.

Great concept but poor execution.

[Top_Dawg_Critic · 6/10 · 16 September 2022]

You can tell newb writer and director Steve Stone's inexperience was evident in this film, especially failing to direct his cast properly. Even Claudia Black looked lost in some scenes, and Richard Blackwood as the commander was just horrible and unconvincing in every scene, not to mention annoying. His demeanor, (lack of) facial expressions and body language, tone of voice and dialogue was just all wrong.

Conceptually the story was interesting, but it suffered plot and technical issues, and the slow pacing with many long dragged out and unnecessary scenes made the normally comfortable 90 min runtime feel much longer. It needed more story to fill in the time, or cut down to a short film. Much of the dialogue felt very amateurish, especially the AI, and writing could've used more suspense and action instead of constant cam views and cheesy cheap random shots.

The visuals however were decent for a low budget B film, and the score was excellent, especially for a B film, where the score is usually too loud, constant, annoying and unfitting.

As a huge sci-fi fan, I still enjoyed it, as I've seen much worse, and seeing it through till the end says a lot. For a low budget B film from a newb filmmaker, I'd say it's a decent one-time watch if you're a sci-fi fan. Had the actors been better cast and/or directed, this film would've been much better. Still, a generous 6/10 from me.

Pretty lame film

[gboado · 4/10 · 16 September 2022]

OK. So we have to be realistic... SciFi films don't exactly must be scientifically accurate (yeah.. Darth Vader isn't real, right?). But at least show some coherence. A sphere is found in Mars orbit in a future far enough to hibernate people and wake them back, and build a really big ship with artificial gravity, then they took 8 months to reach Mars? I am pretty sure SpaceX will do better in a few years... And using hibernation for an 8 months trip in such a large ship with a handful of crewmates? Are you kidding me?

Cast was fairly good, and I am sure they spent a good deal of money in this film, yet the script is poor, to say at least. Don't waste your time as I wasted mine.

An interesting and relevant story

[hellgeist · 10/10 · 14 September 2022]

This movie is what I consider a true sci-fi story - it explored the future of science and technology, and applied them in a very fascinating way to speculate on issues that we see in our own world today.

This is what the genre does in its true form, and we can all benefit from it in ways that transcend mere thrills and entertainment. Scifi is mentally stimulating and should provoke thought and ideas, which Deus certainly does.

I won't spoil the story, but suffice to say, I think the sudden appearance of bad reviews here on IMDB is making a clear statement about how social credit and paid perceptions are deployed, rather than honestly evaluating the film itself.

PS: it was great to see Claudia Black in a space ship again! <3.

Better than expected

[beleonardo · 6/10 · 13 September 2022]

Not being a massive budget film, I was quite pleased with it.

I had two 'big' problems watching this, the first was "Si Rubin", the whole character and performance were pretty bad... The second problem I had was with the writing.

I feel that few more drafts would have perhaps helped, at times it really trails off... Now, few things really stood out like the cinematography and editing, both remarkable.

In fact I'd like to know on which camera it was shot on, please add it on IMDb technical space.

My dearest compliments on set design as well as costumes, they were incredibly good!

Another positive thing was the soundtrack as well as sound effects, both captivating.

Definetely a big step up from Mr. Stone's previous films. Keep it up!

P. S. Casting was very good as well!

British sci-fi

[SnoopyStyle · 5/10 · 1 November 2022]

In the future, the Earth is being crushed by over-population. A mysterious black sphere is orbiting Mars and tycoon Vance sends the spaceship Achilles to investigate. Karla Grey (Claudia Black) is one of the six person crew waking up from hibernation. The sphere starts repetitively transmitting one word, Deus.

This is a British sci-fi film that is a bit above TV level but not quite theatrical level. The first half has elements of sci-fi horror. That's what I'm expecting when one of them starts killing. It's sort of like Event Horizon with less gore. The writing is a little clunky. The most obvious sign is that everybody keeps calling Karla Grey by her full name. It's not dialogue. It's a writer writing down words. Then it delivers its big reveal. Without spoiling, I can say that I appreciate the attempt. It reminds me of an old sci-fi magazine story with a twist. It doesn't really work in the real, but it has hints of something solid.

It's a VERY cheaply produced terrible B-movie. Period.

[imseeg · 2/10 · 20 September 2022]

Deep sigh...

I get it, everybody wants to try to make a brilliant scifi movie with NO money and without any talent available. Does it have a chance of succeeding? No ofcourse not. But these kind of cheaply produced B-movies keep gettting made anyway.

Who could be watching these kind of failures? It is definitely only suited for a television audience that is half awake, half asleep in front of the telly. I prefer being deep asleep, but I have watched it anyway, because I am such a fool for scifi movies that I will try out any new one.

Let's get to the point, is it any good? NO. Ofcourse not.

The bad: the actors are C-listed actors. Not even B-listed, but C-listed. Total lack of any kind of talent or charisma.. Totally bland.

More bad: the scifi sets are cheap fakes. The story is just another ripoff.

To be avoided. Not even terrible in a funny way. Just plain terrible...

Deus

[CinemaSerf · 5/10 · 9 November 2022]

Well I suppose I ought to have read the cast list before shelling out £7.50 to watch this in a cinema. Had I done so, I would have probably been less surprised at just how poor this is. The is a sort of hybrid of "Star Trek V" (1989) with bits of "Stargate SG-1" thrown in too. The whole premiss centres upon a crew of astronauts who are sent to investigate a mysterious sphere orbiting the over-populated Earth and pinging out a coded message that suggests it might actually be God! Captained by MTVs very own Richard Blackwood, it is pretty clear that something nefarious is afoot. To solve that problem, we turn to Claudia Black "Karla" and her muscle-mate "Ulph" (David O'Hara) who are sent to investigate and, of course, it all goes a bit pear-shaped. Hovering above their investigation is their gazillionaire boss "Vance" (Phil Davis in a particularly scruffy -looking flannel/ill-fitting blazer combo) who adds precisely no menace to the proceedings at all. I never quite forgave Black for, in my view, totally trashing what had hitherto been an entertaining sci-fi series in "SG-1", she is a wooden and unremarkable actress who lives up to that description here. Admittedly, the dialogue is just as wooden and O'Hara only has the one gear which does all it needs to, but hardly challenges anyone. The plot is thin and the characterisations left largely on the page (or postcard) as the story lumbers on. The visual effects are easily the best thing about this otherwise derivative television movie that will be remembered next week by nobody.

No Sunshine over the (Event) Horizon......

[FlashCallahan · 5/10 · 12 October 2022]

A mysterious black sphere is discovered in the orbit of Mars.

The Achilles is sent to investigate. After the ragtag six-person crew wake from eight months hibernation, the Sphere is transmitting a single word in every Earth language ever known....... The title of the film, so sleepy audience members won't forget.

Saw this at a secret screening last night, and my audible disdain when the title card appeared on screen made other members laugh in the theatre.

I had only seen a trailer for this, and it didn't do the film any favours, especially when you realised that Richard Blackwood was in it (for those who don't know, he was a very annoying MTV host in the early 2000's who though it would be a good idea to start a pop career.........it wasn't).

As soon as the film begins, you start to realise that this is nothing more than a Sunshine and Event Horizon rip off. They even say the latter films title twice during the film.

So we have a sphere that is shouting out Deus every couple of seconds, which means God. It's also an anagram of used also.

So some of the crew go a little weird, O'hara walks around the Achilles like The Terminator, and Blackwood has a permanent sneer on his face throughout the film, obviously signalling that he isn't all what he seems.

There is some wonderful cinematography in the film, and it all goes along at a steady pace, but you can't help but think that there is a deeper film somewhere in this mess, begging to get out.

All in all, it's not terrible by any means, just a little redundant, and it will vanish without a trace.

What the actual f...

[txjgfx · 1/10 · 15 September 2022]

Is this some kind of millionaires tax write off? It's definitely not a billionaires tax write off!!!

I watched until the terrible ending out of disbelief, surely this film has some redeeming quality, It has none except the lighting is alright and the camera is in focus.

Everything else is a pile of steaming excrement. .

Writing, acting, direction, editing, costumes are as bad as the sets. The captain of a giant space craft sits in a gaming chair, that's the level across the board.

Richard Blackwood brings his usual stilted wooden performance, but no one else does any better.

I always wondered why Claudia Black never had a career like her co-star in Pitch Black, then I remembered she has been in quite a lot of toot like this.

How does someone get the funding to make this? Let me know who will pay me to make an awful film.

Cliche, insufficient creativity

[sjarja · 1/10 · 5 January 2023]

Set design / artistic design ...

This really comes up first in my mind. What has happened here? There are touch-screen pads but also ancient keyboard with CRT screens as if it was the 80s "Alien" Nostromo. There are holograms and seemingly face to face communication between mars and earth (still i think 20 minutes delay) .. but on the other hand, there are crappy CCTV that are just meant to malfunction. (in glorious VGA, because we can build spaceships of that magnitude but no cameras in 4k or 8k it seems) There is AI and automation, but then we see an engine room that fits in the Titanic with steam punk valves and a boiler of sorts.

While not particularly "bad" .. it is an odd mismatch that looks / feels like the production team just got "anything" and tried to build a set, but everything looks out of place and more like bad cosplay.

Add to that the cavernous rooms illuminated by sometimes no light source at all. WHO builds a ship that is in perpetual darkness? Also - is that a second hand ship? It looks like a highschool after 20 years of "use" and minimal maintenance and cleanup.

My little rant aside .. i love Claudia Black, but her performance here feels phoned in, flat and just lazy - it does fit with the rest of the "crews" performance though ... perfectly boring.

As for the story .. sadly, it is full of tropes and archetype characters. All types of characters that are a liability for even passing out fast food, mental wrecks without any skills to be near a space mission. And that is a problem .. none of the characters is a believable scientist. It is a soap-opera of incompetence in space .. hence not making me root for any of them, or the mission.

The movie wants to be deeper than it is. Even a typical "monster of the week" episode of X-files is MUCH deeper, philosophically and also character wise.

It is a 1 star from me, because i am almost angry at how bad it is.

I enjoyed this movie.

[cassellfarmhouse · 6/10 · 14 September 2022]

If you love sci-fi like I do you will probably enjoy this movie. The actors are not going to win any Oscars but that is par for the course with sci-fi. The story is original enough to keep your attention unless sci-fi is not your kind of movie.

The special effects are mostly done well, a few scenes (like in an elevator) look like they were filmed in front of a green screen but the rest is done pretty well. Some scenes could have been done better but overall this movie is good for a single viewing.

The writing was good but it could have been better, things like gravity are mostly ignored in this movie. This is a mystery movie and by the end you will know everything that happened, viewers are not left guessing for the most part.

This movie failed do to a bad storytelling

[kaefab · 4/10 · 14 September 2022]

This movie failed do to a bad storytelling.

It's not the wooden acting because the acting was pretty good, it's not the budget either because the special effects where very good for this movie so not sure why some reviews class it like a typical B movie, the effects were not asylum super bad CGI.

What did the writers and producers of this movie aiming at, i remember sphere the movie back in 1998, event horizon 1997 excellent movies. But this one failed to tell a story. We get the event horizon guy that is possessed, self mutilate, kills one passenger and then gets killed... i guess the movie went downhill from there.

Good SF drama.

[predrag-39184 · 10/10 · 24 September 2022]

I gave a rating of 10 because of various haters who didn't even watch the movie and gave it a low rating. Good script, drama, solid role of the main protagonist.

CGI effects nothing spectacular but quite satisfactory.

A small complaint, other episodic roles without significance, some even meaningless. The dramatization of the story itself is very good, the duration of the film is optimal, just enough so that there is no saturation and monotony among the viewers, which is a problem with most films today, regardless of the budgets that the production uses.

That's all folks from me for now.👍 Real grade 😁for this film is 7 stars.

Not completely awful

[lincolnx · 6/10 · 16 September 2022]

The first half of the film is definitely a chore to watch but it does get somewhat better in the second half.

The main things about Deus that suck include most of the dialog, some of the actors, some of the set design (for example: hexagon shaped doors), and the terrible accent for the computer AI. Also, the ending felt a little abrupt.

The graphics are pretty good and the story itself isn't terrible.

Claudia Black is, of course, the films saving grace.

Considering how awful most low budget movies have been lately, this one is entertaining.

If you can manage the first half, it turns out to not be a waste of time.

The worst sci-fi crime! There is no problem if you just think a little!

[viralsiel · 2/10 · 15 September 2022]

I didn't find any so called sci-fi fans mentioning that they apparently have technology to create megastructures "Black sphere" as well as produce event horizon on demand! Which basically means access to infinite energy, that's where the whole premise of the film false apart, because, get this we have 24 billion people, too much. And here comes science fiction rules, if you have all of the technologies mentioned above you can start pumping out massive space ships to colonize entire solar system and then move on to entire Milky Way. Instead we are led to believe that the easier way is an elaborate scheme to create megastructure, pass it of as God and trick billions into going to heaven (step into event horizon to be vaporized). At this point I stopped, turned off the movie and was angry for a couple of minutes. I couldn't believe how bad the writers for this "sci-fi" are. I guess any hack now can write sci-fi without any research or forethought put into it.

I almost died of boredom

[denverallover · 3/10 · 30 December 2022]

I gave this three stars because of the little twist near the end which made a less than stellar movie a tad bit more interesting. Other than that it's mindless drivel with the typical Judeo-Christian centered BS intertwined into a story with a ton of holes and inconsistencies. Like if they were able to control what Karla could see then why couldn't they control her near the end of the movie to stop her plan? And why build this enormous ship with multiple levels and sections that 6 people would maintain? 6 people! Smh. And of course earth is the center of everything, the crown jewel of the universe--but we really don't know that, do we? And plus the earth isn't going to die, we are. We are killing our own species but the earth, once through with us, will reinvent itself and support new life. The premise was fun but just poorly executed. What a waste of some good British talent.

An hour and half wasted successfully

[konjikinogash · 2/10 · 14 September 2022]

Movie is really bad. From direction to acting to story. Acting is so bad that you won't feel any emotion at the death of crew members. And for story, somehow humans are able to harness multiple event horizon itself but cannot develop sustainable life on another planet. Then there is a crew member who is mentally not fit to even board a space ship for mission of century and he just kills a character literally for no reason. Except female lead you will feel no attachment whatsoever to any other character. For some reason, the person who created the sphere worked on female lead for 2 years, so that eventually she can lead people to die, but didn't account what her response will be if she were to find the truth in future while working on her. He could have literally found better crew to do his mission. Well AI of ship is weird as well, dunno why it said 8 months and 17 weeks. Could have just said an year tbh.