I sat down last night and rented indie scifi film Star One, as a bit of a treat to myself. Scifi is a tricky thing nowadays and often feels like its been taken over by the massive films such as the Star Wars franchise, or Star Trek or even groundbreaking films such as Dune and Dune Part 2 (with Dune Part 3 just around the corner) Rewind a few years and indie scifi films were everywhere, Arena, Robotjox, Hardware. All fun films that werent franchise based. I miss those days and so when I see an indie scifi film fly into my orbit, I do like to check it out. I think the last one I saw was Arena Wars back in 2024. Now im not saying that hasnt been any indie scifi films in the past couple of years, just that ive not seen as many as Id liked to have done. I hark back to the days of renting a title from a video store, heading to the comfort of my own home and pressing play. Hoping to be entertained. Video Stores have gone but there is still the video on demand platforms which I guess is the closest Ill get to the video store feeling. So last night, I rented (£3.99) Star One from Prime Video, settled down and pressed play!

Id mentioned earlier that indie scifi is tricky nowadays due to the large franchises out there and what I mean by that is when we see a Star Wars film, we know that in that world, lightsabers exist, jedis exist, we know the names of many planets in that galaxy we know Tatooine, Coruscant, Yavin etc etc! with Star Trek we know the names of many of the starships, we know about the federation, the Romulans, the Vulcans etc etc and so going into an indie scifi film we have to reset our brains to new rules, worlds we dont know and that can be a bit weird in this franchise packed film world we live in but thankfully with Star One we do get titles cards for the various planets we are visiting (and there are a few ) and whilst it did take my worn out brain a little while to get used to who was what and which side was the good side etc etc, writer director Neil Johnson has done a great job at helping the audience keep up with who is who and what their role in the film is. When you strip down many of the layers that Star One has, the plot is this ‘Evil Empire must be taken out!’ and who better than to lead the fight but the crew of Star One led by John Worthy (played by Darren ‘Rebel Moon Chapter 2’ Jacobs) There is of course more to the plot of Star One but that is your core of this planet hopping tale.

Star One is a hugely ambitious film, its scope is massive and whilst I do suspect the films budget wasnt massive (most indie films don’t have a huge budget) I am pretty sure that the film looks like it costs 100 times more than it actually cost. Visually the film looks great, there’s a large amount of practical work in the film and I love it when a scifi film does that, Nowadays I guess so many films go the full CG route and from what I can tell, Neil Johnson has created a ton of physical models for this film and enhanced the shots with visual effects, but i’m no filmmaker so that is just my guesswork, but either way Star One looks impressive. Yes some of the shots are a little ‘busy’ sometimes especially when it comes to shots involving video screens or computer displays but that’s a tiny nit pick. Overall Star One is a highly entertaining scifi romp which reminded me of the fun I had watching shows like Battlestar Galactica, or Space:Above and Beyond. Very enjoyable! The cast look like they are having a lot of fun too with their planet hopping shenanigans and multiple space battles as they take on the evil empire in the hope of saving civilisation from tyranny and brutality.

The only other teeny nit pick that I have with the film is that this film would have been a great scifi film for young teens and upwards were it not for a litter of F-bombs throughout the film, now I know that young teens have heard f-bombs before, It would be hard to escape those in the world we live in now but were I Neil Johnson, Id have snipped those words out which wouldn’t have affected the plot at all but would have made the film a little more family friendly. But as I said before. Im not a filmmaker so that’s just a teeny tiny nit pick from me. (I felt the same way when I compared the different versions of Zack Snyders Rebel Moon films too) But having a few sweary words in Star One didn’t affect my overall enjoyment of the film and I look forward to further films from Neil Johnson. Neil is clearly a massive scifi fan and I suspect he has been all his life and it shows in this love letter to the films and shows that have come before Star One. So grab some popcorn (or your snack of choice) Buckle up! and hit the hyperdrive button (or press play) on this scifi gem!

You can rent or buy Star One now from Prime Video. Click HERE.