Lawrence Fishburn leads here in his pre-Morpheus role while he was still young and fit. He delivers a commanding performance of the captain who is both haunted by his past and dealing with things in the present. The character gets rattled and recovers to make reasonable decisions and protect his crew wherever possible. The lines they gave him were good, and the way he delivers the description of a crew member being engulfed in fire in zero gravity is haunting.
Sam Neil is not a great actor. In Jurassic Park, which I'm pretty sure is his biggest role ever, he was cold and stiff through the whole thing. Maybe that was the character, right? Well, he's stiff and cold throughout this one. He's supposed to be going insane and dealing with visions of his dead wife, and we really don't get much this side of creepy stares.
This movie was a defining moment for space horror. I don't think there was a better take on non-alien space horror before the Event Horizon, and I don't think there was a better example of the genre since. Pandorum might have been the closest thing I can think of. It brings creepy and tense to a giant ship filled with dead people and ghosts.
As with all sci-fi, there is going to be a little issue with some of the science. The carbon dioxide scrubbers that were enough for the crew while they were on the tiny ship are not enough on the big ship - even though there are the same number of people producing carbon dioxide. Speaking of that big derelict ship, they manage to get oxygen, heat, and gravity to the whole ship (which never turns on its power system) in a matter of minutes. Impressive. And the special effects of things floating? The original Star Wars had better effects.
Still, small things are just that - small. This movie still has a feel and terror after all these years.
Effects were mostly good.
Direction was excellent.
Acting was good.
Story was unique and interesting.
Dialogue was very good.
4.5/5