Clearly filmed on a broken shoestring. I had the impression it was some film school's class project, and the effects reminded me of low-budget pre-STAR WARS science fiction. But it's not a bad premise and it had its moments. Certainly more could have been done with the old professor and his graduate student. Joss Whedon could have made a very respectable film out of this by tweaking the script a bit and tightening up the direction, but a week or two of his time would probably have exceed the entire budget. Still, it makes you itch to see what the same people could have done with better direction and a slightly tweaked script, or what the director could have done with more time and practice. It's not one of my regulars, but I don't regret the (cheap) purchase price.
