A small team of marines commandeer a spacecraft called the O'Bannon, which lost contact with them awhile ago. The team investigates the bloody scene and come upon four individuals, who appear as if they were in some type of bloody and brutal battle. The survivors are Nicholas Kuttner, Alejandro Borges, Isabel Cho, and Nolan Stross.
They take the four aboard their ship, and each member is interrogated by the higher ups, with intentions on learning the details of their botched mission. Their mission was to investigate the highly unstable planet Aegis VII for a mysterious artifact. What happened on the planet before it went nova and afterwards? And what exactly are these interrogators after? -summary
Dead Space: Aftermath, directed by Mike Disa is based on the video game Dead Space 2 by Electronic Arts, and it's the sequel to the first movie Dead Space: Downfall. The movie is a sci-fi action thriller with horror elements, and it remains true to the style of the original; which is a gory action packed kill fest. However, this time around, the movie is far more story driven than its predecessor, and it doesn't rely only on mindless action to push the plot. The movie touches on psychological elements, as well as government conspiracies and cover-ups. None of these things are new of course, and the way the themes are handled aren't innovative in the slightest, but the steady pacing and just the overall flow of the narrative, clearly, is what saves the movie from being a chore to watch.
Visually, this movie is leaps and bounds ahead of its predecessor. Several segments of the movie, mainly the interrogation chapter is delivered in CG. While the four individual stories, told by each of the survivors is fully animated. The CG has some vibrant and very impressive backgrounds. I mean nothing seems to be lazily put together. The dying planet has a few cool moments like the flowing of lava, and the various colors in the skies, as well as the horizons in space. Everything had a very fluid feel to it, and there's really nothing I can complain about. The character designs for the ships are also very cool, and the animation was a joy to watch when ships were trying to avoid being crushed during the planets explosion. The characters facial features seemed genuine when displaying different emotions, and the lip movements seemed well sync with the dialogue.
The traditional animation had its moments also, with some freakish character designs for the monsters, and some brutal action scenes. Although the action delivered for the most part. It was no where near as sick and twisted as the original. In all honesty, I was actually disappointed in that area. I'm not saying the scenes were bad, because I don't think they were, but the previous movie set the bar insanely high. So set your expectations low if that's the only reason you're coming into this.
My complaint with the flaw in the animation is kind of a big one. The animation would be very inconsistent during the four survivors stories. The differences between the character designs would be very drastic, to the point where it was hard to recognize characters. One guy would have a darker shade of skin than before, while another would go from a receding hairline in one scene, to a full head of hair in another. Even though the story was from four different perspectives; the stories took place in the same period, and lead to the same conclusion. So I just didn't see the point with the visual change.
The voice acting is another strength. The voice talents consist of Peter Woodward, Christopher Judge, and Graham McTavish, to name only a few. I think everyone did a good enough job in their roles.
The story is the basic man vs. monsters. The space crew is locked in deadly battle with these murderous creatures called the Necromorphs, who are accidentally released onto the ship. The creatures multiply with each victim they kill, creating a living dead setting taking place in space. There are other things taking place, like characters losing their minds and suffering through hallucinations that results in very violent behaviour. The original movie lightly touched this area, but this sequel turned it into an effective plot device.
The only flaw I could of think of in the narrative is the initial presentation. You already know from the very beginning who survives the onslaught. Therefore, the suspense on who's going to make it is non-existent, and you're just waiting to see how these people are going to eat it.
Overall, Dead Space: Aftermath is a solid movie to me. I haven't played the sequel yet, but I was still able to enjoy this movie. The movie does contain a lot of foul language, very minor sex scenes, and nudity. If this sounds like your thing then give it a shot. The movie has a 78 minute run time.
Pros:
-Visually impressive
-Story
-Action
-Voice acting
Cons:
-Animation is inconsistant for no real reason,
-CG had slightly stiff animation at times
