Andromeda 3
Andromeda 3
The movie, Andromeda 3 describes itself as “A young man must travel to the furthest reaches of the universe to find his long-lost father.”. The film poster shows a Terminator skeleton and armoured figures fighting. It sounds like Ad Astra meets Star Wars, right? If you were hoping for that by watching Andromeda 3, you’re in for a let down. Even if you weren’t hoping for it, you’re still probably going to be disappointed anyway. But we’ll get there.
Aiden Crawford (Tim Llewellyn, The Starter Marriage, Fustercluck) is a troubled person — most of his troubles come from the disappearance and death of his astronaut dad (Paul T. Taylor, Hellraiser: Judgment, Road Head), then one day he gets a call from ‘Dad’s Office’ is what caller ID says anyways. Quick cutaway to show that said office is at NASA HQ and he drives over on his motorcycle for a meeting with Joseph Sharp (Tom Zembrod, High Moon, The Harrowing) and Robert McGrady (Michael Dooley, 2020 Sucks, Bull Shark) who are two of his dad’s colleagues who have quite the story to tell him.
Turns out dad isn’t really dead… or maybe he is but his consciousness is alive in a world he created in his mind using alien technology… Or maybe he’s dead there too? Either way though, when Aiden was a kid one of those microchips they need to power their equipment got implanted in his neck by dad and they need him to go take a look around.
This is where writer/director Brett Bentman (The Bounty Men, Apocalypse Road) starts running into problems. This scene takes place IN AN EMPTY AUDITORIUM FOR SOME REASON instead of an office and it’s incredibly confusing. Part conspiracy theory with staged funerals; part technobabble, it’s nigh on impossible to figure out what’s going on. But apparently NB22 — the world he created using this equipment — is real, or at least “As real as you want it to be” as they tell Aiden. And it may also be our only hope against climate change… for saving mankind from climate change… something along those lines.
But this isn’t even really the focus of Andromeda 3 until it’s almost over, and this is another big problem with the film. For a large chunk of its first hour, Aiden talks to his therapist (Genine Ware, Battlegrounds, Ghost Note) about his issues, remembers the last time he saw his dad and argues with Sharp and McGrady about him and his work. Then he goes back to the therapist with new issues.
See what I’m saying about being disappointed? Rather than a science fiction movie, Andromeda 3 is mostly a drama about a guy in therapy trying to work through things from when he was young. It’s not what anyone expects based on the plot description or poster image, nor is it an interesting substitution.
Afterwards, Aiden uses the machine to go back in time and see his father again, at which point they have a conversation that convinces him to go to NB22 and find out what happened. At this stage, Andromeda goes from science fiction to fantasy because it sounds like his dad found heaven — or made it. After he died, he was “reconstructed” on a planet that’s basically paradise waiting for humanity to colonize. Of course, those who think microchipping is the biblical “Mark of the Beast” might come away with a different impression.
What could’ve been an interesting low-budget sci-fi movie becomes a tedious mess that mostly ignores those parts in favor of a boring story about childhood trauma. And when it does foreground more interesting material, it can’t coherently articulate or explain them before tossing them aside for what seems like a religious revelation.
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- Genre: Action, Drama, Sci-fic
- Country: United States
- Director: Brett Bentman
- Cast: J. Benedict Larmore, Tom Zembrod, Lauren Lakis
