User Reviews

This four episode French TV series is a tough slog for even the most determined science fiction fan. It is slow, arty and dull. The screenplay by Jacques Armand has an intriguing central premise, but spends too much time following the characters around as they do everyday things. Daniel Moosmann's direction compounds the problem by shooting very long shots and stringing together long meandering sequences. In the second episode, for example, we follow lead Richard Fontana as he walks through an abandoned factory for what seems like a half hour. A better director could have done it in four or five shots. The final nail in this movie's coffin is the casting. Leads Catherine Leprince and Richard Fontana are neither particularly attractive nor particularly interesting. While the series' creators may have been making a point about the quality of life in France, it does not make watching these people eat, drink and walk around entertaining. While the movie's plot is scarcely fresh, it does have promise. Creepy Stéphane Bouy is busy making, buying and stealing corpses. The lead couple gets involved when they accidentally kill Leprince's nightclub owner boss François Perrot. Bouy arrives and removes the body. As Leprince and Fontana get more involved, they are shocked to discover some of the corpses they delivered reanimated and given new identities. The bodies are now being used by aliens exiled from their home planet. Unfortunately, this storyline is hidden deep in each episode under layers of mundane details. It actually seems as if the filmmakers were consciously trying to make Noires Sont Les Galaxies as dull as possible. As it exists now, the series could have easily been edited to half its length with no damage done.