Deus

• Written and Directed by Steve Stone
• May 22, 2022 (UK)

A mysterious object is discovered in orbit of Mars and a six-person crew is sent to investigate.

Sometime in the not-too-distant future (but not way down in Deep 13) the Earth is dying through apparent environmental negligence and just general overpopulation. Into this chaos appears a mysterious black sphere orbiting Mars so a mission is dispatched to find out what it is. Deus (or Deus: The Dark Sphere) avoids a great deal of setup and begins the story right on the ship in the middle of the mission which is a strength as we get all we really need to know from dialogue.

Too often movies get involved in extraneous setup that are included because they have a budget for all the extra. This is done on the cheap which is a benefit to the general narrative as it forces a distinct lack of fluff. It also appears to harm the finale.

With mysterious signals and mysterious objects and characters looking for meaning with the implication they are seeing what they want and not what is, there is so much potential yet the story unfortunately fumbles the end. Deus comes off feeling like it is going to be a big idea science fiction film about man’s place in the universe and the human condition set at a pivotal juncture in human history. And for most of the time it does just that. It just fails in the landing.

I picked this film because it had Claudia Black in it and she is a fine actress. I heard some okay things about the story itself but I felt that Black’s skills would elevate at the minimum her materials and she most certainly does. Black stars as Karla Grey who is a scientist that lost her mother and daughter in the same auto accident two years prior. She now carries guilt that amounts to survivors’ guilt.

None of the actors are generally bad. And David O’Hara as Ulph was better than most. He has a very everyman look and delivery that makes him very relatable and believable. Much like Black he was able to give his material something more. The captain of the ship Sen Paul (Richard Blackwood) is clearly hiding something. Helen Keller could pick that up. He is cold to downright hostile towards Grey. And in the context of what we are initially given there is no real reason why.

As Deus goes along it becomes clear something is being hidden if you didn’t realize that already. Given what they set up you come to believe that it involves the truth of the spheres-which it is. The problem is that truth doesn’t turn out to be a big universe secret. It just turns out to be a plot to help bring the population of Earth down. Once that reveal happens the movie becomes so much less and much more generic. It had the potential to still get deep but pulls back.

Grey has been groomed since before her accident to be on this mission even when she didn’t realize it. She is to be a voice of reason convinced of the fantastic. Her purpose is to get people to step into devices across the planet that contain the event horizon of a blackhole. Once they do they will die instantly. Pretty dark. How they explain away everything is quite ingenious. That I appreciate and that helps make this less of a bad bait and switch and more of a bait and switch I wish didn’t happen.

The special effects in Deus are top notch. The sets fall between ‘not bad’ and ‘okay.’ I just draw issue with the control panels. There is a lot of unused space on them and considering space in spaceships is at a premium I’m not sure why they would have that. It doesn’t make too much sense given the rest of the thought into the plot.

The short 90-minute run does not provide nearly enough time to develop the cast characters or any of the ideas that they are touching upon in this film. That’s a real disservice. Even with the bait and switch of the ending it still could’ve been something intriguing with maybe 15 or 30 minutes more time. Grey and Ulph get built up but not nearly enough.

Writer and director Steve Stone film should have handed the script off to someone else. I know there is a great temptation to direct your own material but not everyone can do that. And perhaps that’s part of the problem. A disinterested voice could have provided feedback that this did not get.

Deus is an okay movie that could have been something very special. The actors are all good but it’s the twist at the end and how it is handled that makes this something less than it should’ve been. You won’t be disappointed but it’s not necessary to seek out.