More like Space Station AWESOME, amirite?

Space Station Alpha has, since its release over three years ago, remained one of my personal favorite 3DMM movies. The interesting thing about it, however, is the way it sort of lingers in the back of your mind, in some plain-looking box in the annals of 3dmm history. It doesn't stick out that much, and so you often forget that it's there, but when you do remember it, it's always a pleasant surprise. I don't really recall the movie ever being particularly popular, I didn't really know anything about it before it was released, and the visual aspect was nothing really groundbreaking.

How, then, does it manage to remain such a great film? It's because it makes you forget what it really is. It's a generic science fiction movie made in a children's program from the mid-90s, but the movie is so engrossing that even when it throws stretched UFOs at you and tries to pass them off as intense, futuristic alien fighter ships the suspension of disbelief is not lost.

The story is pretty generic. An alien race who has saved the human race now seeks to eliminate it, and a team looking to avoid needless bloodshed goes to investigate. There are no huge plot twists. There's nothing we haven't really seen in a story before. It's the superb writing and Saville's fantastic direction that make it such a great film. The interaction between the characters is fluid and uncontrived, and you can almost believe that Greg Strnad is a woman. The dialogue manages to turn absurd-looking, expressionless characters into deep, emotional human beings, displaying almost every facet of their personality in a remarkably short period of time.

Considering how epic everything in the movie feels, it feels surprising that it's only about 15 minutes long. It's almost as if Saville has managed to take all of the best parts of a science fiction movie and string them together in a way that is both satisfying and coherent. The movie walks in and walks out and the only lingering feeling is that of contentment. It's a really great film.