MILLENNIUM CRISIS

Onscreen text at the beginning informs us that "the Terran and Andromodean Empires have enjoyed a fragile peace for almost 100 years. That time is about to end".

The catalyst is a massacre of several Andromodeans, which is thought to be a terrorist attack by Terrans. However, Andromodean intelligence discovers the attack was conducted by the Kluduthu - an ancient, violent alien race that has laid low for decades, but now reappeared to start a galactic war in the hope of wiping out all other races.

Meanwhile, Aurora (Clare Stevenson, THE DROP) is an unassuming alien confused about her identity - she doesn't know quite what she is, just that she doesn't fit in as either a Terran or Andromodean.

Aurora loses her office job one day when her friend Lexi (Jennifer Gordon Thomas) encourages to show a colleague her talent for mimicking people. Unfortunately Aurora mimics visiting official Harkness (Tao Jones) and is fired by her boss.

The next morning Lexi contacts Aurora by video message, feeling responsible for her friend's dismissal. She recommends a job to Aurora - escorting an android prisoner to another planet.

Aurora accepts the task and, once on board a spaceship filled with androids, learns that there is a genetically modified Terran also on board - who has been programmed to kill androids without question.

The Terran inevitably escapes from its quarters and wreaks havoc across the ship. When the Terran corners Aurora it seems her death is imminent, but when he looks into her eyes he merely mutters "Blood Mask".

After being saved from the rogue Terran by the androids, Aurora asks them what a "Blood Mask" is. She learns that they are legendary descendants of a chameleon-like race of humanoids.

Discovering that she is a Blood Mask, Aurora finally has an identity - and starts to uncover powers within her that she never knew she had. The downside is that the Kluduthu are hunting down every last one of this rare species to use as weapons in their galactic war, and Harkness - being a Kluduthu himself - is aware that Aurora is a Blood Mask, on account of her talent for impersonations ...

Aurora soon finds herself on an alien plant, fending off Kluduthu conspirators and doubting the integrity of even her closest friends. It seems that only the geeky August (Ted Raimi, EVIL DEAD 2) can be trusted ...

MILLENNIUM CRISIS often looks very impressive, thanks to heavy use of green-screen computerised background. The low budget means that the computer generated imagery is at times a little ropey, but for the most part it's pleasingly convincing.

The film's look is very much in the vein of DUNE (all orange-hued desert landscapes and red skies) and THE FIFTH ELEMENT (even down to the hair colouring and clothing of Aurora).

Plotwise, the film doesn't offer a lot in terms of originality. It's as if screenwriters Andrew Bellware (who also directs) and Anthony Litton have tried to pinch elements from as many classic sci-fi films as possible. One moment a sub-plot will recall THE TERMINATOR (the modified Terran that will stop at nothing to kill what it's been programmed to), the next it'll crib from THE MATRIX (Aurora discovering she is the chosen one, and has the power to save the universe) and even STAR WARS (video hologram message painfully similar to the ones of Princess Leia that R2D2 holds in the original). The end result is a confused, over-crowded and derivative plot.

In terms of action, MILLENNIUM CRISIS doesn't really deliver much. There are couple of token combat scenes thrown in to boost the pace, but they're so obviously crowbarred in that they add nothing to the plot. The low budget again dictates here that these scenes are more embarrassing than exhilarating.

Performances are generally adept, although it's a shame Raimi's hardly in the film as he is the only character with an iota of charisma. If I was meant to feel for Aurora's character then Stevenson has failed in her role completely: all I kept thinking was that her arse looked really big in her costume.

The film is presented uncut in it's original 1.78:1 aspect ratio and has been 16x9 enhanced. The images are sharp if a little highly contrasted, but colours are strong.

The English audio is available in both 2.0 and 5.1 mixes, both of which are solid, consistent offerings.

Although there's no scene-selection menu the film can be accessed via your remote by way of 16 chapters.

Animated menus include a Special Features menu which includes the following:

Feature commentary from director Bellware and producer Laura Schlactmeyer, who also came up with the original story. It's a very informative listen, with few gaps and lots of interesting technical asides - mostly from Bellware.

"Visual EFX" is a 2-and-a-half-minute featurette narrated by FX technician Henry Steady and Bellware, explaining the work that went into the CGI.

"The Stars of MILLENNIUM CRISIS" is 9 minutes of on-set interviews with the main cast members (including Raimi), intercut with clips from the film.

Finally, there's trailers for DARK CHAMBER, SHOCK-O-RAMA, THE CREATURE FROM THE HILLBILLY LAGOON, CHANTAL, SINFUL, SSI and BACTERIUM.

MILLENNIUM CRISIS looks amazing on the odd occasion, but the overall effect is a rather lifeless and cheap variation on several bigger and better films.

Review by Stuart Willis