This being a non-Hollywood low-budget science fiction movie, it is the kind of film that one is generally made aware of by positive word-of-mouth rather than a large-scale marketing scheme. That also makes it easier to manage expectations, because CARGO has plenty to offer, without redefining or contributing much new to an old genre.
My absolute favorite part of CARGO is its cold and disconnected atmosphere, mainly due to the excellent production design, photography, acting and the intricate sound design. If there ever was a sci-fi movie that really sold the world it is set in, this would be the one. We are aboard the cargo ship Kassandra for most of the film, and it looks, sounds and almost feels extremely realistic. The bleak industrial design and dark corridors imply a corporate future that is unconcerned with esthetics and its employees' safety and well-being. The cast is unknown to me, but their subdued performances really sell the harsh realism of this bleak future. And it is very refreshing to see a sci-fi movie actually spoken in German (rather than dubbed), to show us that not only Britons, Irish and North-Americans get to go into space and encounter problems there.
The photography employs the right amount of lighting in wide, steady shots, to adequately sell an increasing sense of loneliness and paranoia. Coupled with the film's soundtrack, it makes a feast for the senses: with the constant humming of the engines, loud banging of machinery and every sound echoing through the interior, it has rarely been so easy to believe that we're in a spaceship. The ethereal score also adds greatly to one of the best atmosperes and sound ambiences I've experienced in the genre.
The atmospheric highlight of the film is the ship's huge cargo hold, where the protagonists investigate a weird phenomenon that kicks off the plot. Most ship-in-space movies try to use the claustrophobia factor, but this one successfully employs a nearly crippling sense of agoraphobia. The cargo hold is a massive space, dark, cold and snowy, with enormous cubical containers that periodically shift place. Largely rendered in meticulous CGI, it oozes with an almost palpable sense of dread, for fear of falling, getting lost, or simply becoming overwhelmed by its nearly unfathomable nothingness. This applies even more to the huge space station near the film's end, where we really experience a human's puniness, isolation and insignificance in the vast reaches of cold space.
The basic premise of a sparsely populated freight ship in space is of course borrowed from the classic ALIEN, and it is used with surprising efficiency. Those familiar with these kinds of movies know that something will happen during the journey that will jeopardize the mission and/or decimate the crew, but CARGO fortunately isn't interested in little green men or creepy monsters (to the disappointment of some, no doubt). Especially near the finale, the ultimate horror is personified much more by the feeling of being displaced and left out so far from our familiar Earth than by a very present physical adversary. It was here where I noticed very pleasant parallels with Danny Boyle's SUNSHINE or Alphonso Cuaron's GRAVITY. As James Cameron once put it, "the most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent."
That is also the movie's weak point. When its central themes and plot twists are revealed, we easily recognize heavy inspiration from classics like Blade Runner, The Matrix, Silent Running and the aforementioned Alien. The film brings up a few potentially interesting existential questions that give food for though, but it unfortunately doesn't linger too much on these potentially thought-provoking elements as it could have. In the end, the movie's style and appearance easily overshadow its narrative and subtext, and the film's special effects, though impressive for the modest budget, vary in quality enough for Hollywood to not have to worry yet.
So no new classic, but I applaud this good attempt to make a film within a genre that large film industries usually have a monopoly on. The makers show that they have a firm grasp on visual storytelling without making it look amateurish, and I wonder what they could do with a really inventive story. There is an English dub of this movie, but I believe that kind of defeats the purpose of seeing other cultures struggle in space. Whatever the choice, be sure to watch and listen to it in HD for a magnificent home theatre experience.
My absolute favorite part of CARGO is its cold and disconnected atmosphere, mainly due to the excellent production design, photography, acting and the intricate sound design. If there ever was a sci-fi movie that really sold the world it is set in, this would be the one. We are aboard the cargo ship Kassandra for most of the film, and it looks, sounds and almost feels extremely realistic. The bleak industrial design and dark corridors imply a corporate future that is unconcerned with esthetics and its employees' safety and well-being. The cast is unknown to me, but their subdued performances really sell the harsh realism of this bleak future. And it is very refreshing to see a sci-fi movie actually spoken in German (rather than dubbed), to show us that not only Britons, Irish and North-Americans get to go into space and encounter problems there.
The photography employs the right amount of lighting in wide, steady shots, to adequately sell an increasing sense of loneliness and paranoia. Coupled with the film's soundtrack, it makes a feast for the senses: with the constant humming of the engines, loud banging of machinery and every sound echoing through the interior, it has rarely been so easy to believe that we're in a spaceship. The ethereal score also adds greatly to one of the best atmosperes and sound ambiences I've experienced in the genre.
The atmospheric highlight of the film is the ship's huge cargo hold, where the protagonists investigate a weird phenomenon that kicks off the plot. Most ship-in-space movies try to use the claustrophobia factor, but this one successfully employs a nearly crippling sense of agoraphobia. The cargo hold is a massive space, dark, cold and snowy, with enormous cubical containers that periodically shift place. Largely rendered in meticulous CGI, it oozes with an almost palpable sense of dread, for fear of falling, getting lost, or simply becoming overwhelmed by its nearly unfathomable nothingness. This applies even more to the huge space station near the film's end, where we really experience a human's puniness, isolation and insignificance in the vast reaches of cold space.
The basic premise of a sparsely populated freight ship in space is of course borrowed from the classic ALIEN, and it is used with surprising efficiency. Those familiar with these kinds of movies know that something will happen during the journey that will jeopardize the mission and/or decimate the crew, but CARGO fortunately isn't interested in little green men or creepy monsters (to the disappointment of some, no doubt). Especially near the finale, the ultimate horror is personified much more by the feeling of being displaced and left out so far from our familiar Earth than by a very present physical adversary. It was here where I noticed very pleasant parallels with Danny Boyle's SUNSHINE or Alphonso Cuaron's GRAVITY. As James Cameron once put it, "the most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent."
That is also the movie's weak point. When its central themes and plot twists are revealed, we easily recognize heavy inspiration from classics like Blade Runner, The Matrix, Silent Running and the aforementioned Alien. The film brings up a few potentially interesting existential questions that give food for though, but it unfortunately doesn't linger too much on these potentially thought-provoking elements as it could have. In the end, the movie's style and appearance easily overshadow its narrative and subtext, and the film's special effects, though impressive for the modest budget, vary in quality enough for Hollywood to not have to worry yet.
So no new classic, but I applaud this good attempt to make a film within a genre that large film industries usually have a monopoly on. The makers show that they have a firm grasp on visual storytelling without making it look amateurish, and I wonder what they could do with a really inventive story. There is an English dub of this movie, but I believe that kind of defeats the purpose of seeing other cultures struggle in space. Whatever the choice, be sure to watch and listen to it in HD for a magnificent home theatre experience.