When did space travel become so unpleasant? I miss the days when you could cross the galaxy in comfort on the bridge of the Enterprise. Instead, in this film from Christian Alvart, Lieutenant Payton (Dennis Quaid) and Corporal Bower (Ben Foster) awake from hypersleep on the starship Elysium to find that everything has gone to pot.
The lights are out, the corridors are dank as sewers, the reactor is down, and ninja Morlocks are on the prowl. Worst of all, they can't remember anything, and there's always the risk of the deep-space psychosis of the title, a schizoid paranoia that under the circumstances seems pretty reasonable.
At this point, the film becomes the video game that's its ultimate fate, with Bower exploring the ship's innards to reach the reactor, turning up weapons and allies and information along the way to the predictable twist ending. The earsplitting soundtrack, nauseating camera work, and stroboscopic editing are a high price to pay for little reward.
