In the far (?) distant future, humankind has populated the galaxy ...
and is of course still waging war among itself - these days it's the
Federation against the religious nutters of Terra Nostra ... only that the
Federation is about as rotten as Terra Nostra, and corrupt and ruthless to
the bone. John Worthy (Darren Jacobs) is a flight lieutnant on Starship
One, the most powerful starship of the Federation, with the power of
destroying whole planets - but when his captain (Claudia Wells) wants to
blow (a totally run-down but still inhabited) earth out of the skies,
Worthy eliminates her instead - and finds mostly supporters (but also one
traitor [Brooke Lewis]) among the crew, none of whom are convinced that
destroying Earth is in the best interest of the war efforts. Under
Worthy's command, our heroes can safely land their (heavily damaged)
Starship One on earth and get it into working order again - and on earth
they are also approached by representants of the Uprising, a third party
who neither belongs to the Federation nor the Terra Nostra but whants to
expose both fractions as the same evil, and they are of course interested
in Starship One, but also courageous men with a free will like Worthy to
commandeer it. Soon, one of the leading figures of the Uprising, Jolli
(Emii), becomes Worthy's second-in-command on Starship One, too, as well
as his love interest. However, while the Uprising prepare an uprising on
Terra Nostra's home planet, General Gustav (Ralph Guzzo), third in command
of the Federation after the Overseer (Michael Scott Martin, Myke Michaels,
voiced by Neil Johznson) and his half sister Czarina (Rajia Baroudi) has
taken Worthy's mother and sister hostage and demands Starship One in
exchange for them ... but the hostage exchange ends in disaster, and
ultimately, Worthy becomes a prisoner of General Gustav - but that's only
the beginning of another story ... To say that Starship:
Rising is a fast-paced film would be a bit of an understatement - but
admittedly, this not always works in the film's benefit, quite often one
has the feeling it's telling its convoluted story in a too breathless way
... but on the other hand, the film never loosens up when it comes to
action, featuring tons of deep space fights, fights on other planets,
shoot-outs and the like at a breathtaking regularity, and most of the
effects look amazing, not only for the film's allegedly very modest budget
(let alone the number of effects that would put many a big budget
Hollywood extravaganza to shame). So while watching this, there is no
doubt you will be greatly entertained, plus you might also love the retro
style of some of the effect work, and trust me, the story will sink in
eventually - and in any case, you will be left longing for the sequel Starship:
Apocalypse (yet to be released, unfortunately ...)!
|