User reviews

I've just finished watching this and i must say i really had low expectations for it as it has been released directly to DVD. However, it has proved to be quite entertaining, it deserves a 7 mark as far as i'm concerned.

The plot: in the distant future, due to interstellar space travel advancements, humanity has started setting up massive mining operations on other planets. Alien life has not been discovered yet, but a certain mining site uncovers a ancient and mysterious artifact which seems to be related to a religious current that places a similar object at its base. The massive artifact is being prepared to be transported to Earth on a transport ship but upon its arrival strange events take place involving the personnel of the mining facility. Paranoia, delusions and a unexplained wave of violent incidents among the miners. The source of these increasingly strange events starts pointing more and more towards the alien object, and the senior security officer on the ship is the only one that seems to foresee the danger.

Animation is decent, if a bit too choppy at moments but it makes up for it on the action scenes where it appears to get noticeably better.

This is not Japanese so don't expect some impressive "camera" (this is animation) movements but with pretty skilled use of CG here and there it manages to pull of some exciting stuff.

The story could of been a bit more elaborate, but they do throw in some details and explanations. Horror fans will be pleased with the amount of gore and blood, but those expecting a solid intrigue and story will be left somewhat unsatisfied. I'm saying this not because it is confusing or bleak but because along the way it promises some nice twists and does not get into details, maybe due to the fact that the movie is pretty short (1hr 14mins).

Overall, a decent animation flick well worth watching on DVD and for those interested, a horror survival video game has been released at the same time (the movie is a back-story to the events in the game ), named simply Dead Space and taking place in the same setting as the movie.

Upon buying the game on release day, the guy behind the counter lovingly threw in a copy of the blu-ray for an extra £10.

I'll be honest, having read Luke-warm reviews on other sites, I wasn't particularly looking forward to watching the feature, but when taking a breather from the game (it gets to your nerves after a while...) I was pleasantly surprised at what the flick had to offer.

The script and voice acting are competent, and the story will definitely appeal to enthusiasts of the property. And whilst the animation isn't stellar, as a companion piece to the video game and animated comic, it serves its adequate purpose of adding another layer to this intriguing universe, a universe that I can only hope will develop into a successful franchise.

A hint to those who may be in my position though, finish the game before you watch this, there's a slight spoiler at the end of the movie.

This movie came free with a special edition of the Dead Space game that i bought. Being a fan of animation, i immediately popped this into my DVD player for a view. On first viewing i was impressed, though with subsequent viewings, the flaws started to bubble to the surface.

The story seems to be a blend of Aliens, Resident Evil(the game) and Doom(the movie). Spaceship responds to a distress signal from some far off mining colony, some alien organism gets on board and starts replicating and killing the crew. Throw in an internal power struggle between the ship's captain and his doctor, a dash of pseudo-religious talk and lots of bloody action and you get Dead Space Downfall.

The more interesting parts of the story is actually the interplay between the captain, his bridge crew and the doctor. It builds up very nicely to its satisfying climax and plays out like a live action movie in terms of the dialogue and level of acting. Hidden agendas are brought to light and trust goes down the drain hole, leading to the eventual breakdown of order on board the spaceship. Sadly, the film chooses to focus on the bland and clichéd story of the security team tackling the alien infestation.

Characterization wise, none of the characters really come across as any thing but one dimensional. The captain and the doctor are pretty well done but since the story did not focus much on them, it was a wasted effort. The main characters in the security team are typical sci/fi B movie stock characters. Acting tough but still getting killed off ever so easily. The pseudo-religious subplot could have evolved into something really interesting or could have been used as a metaphor for some really life issues today. Sadly, the writers focused too much on the action than on developing the more interesting aspects of the plot.

Which brings me to the action itself, and the animation. The animation is inconsistent. Though it is a huge step upward from Film roman's previous animated movies like Hellboy Animated and Turok Son of Stone, it has not yet reached the standard one would expect from direct to DVD animated features. The animation for the most part is smooth with a high frame rate, but that is due to the stylized angular character designs and simple shadows and shading. The CGI and backgrounds though are a real treat to look at as the cel shading blends almost seamlessly with the simpler 2D designs and doesn't feel at all jarring. While most of the animation and art are quite good, it is during the action scenes that we see a visible dip in quality. The level of art detail drops A LOT in the action scenes and the character movements suddenly get really stiff and choppy. Some scenes are very obviously only a few key frames "motion blurred" to give the illusion of movement or a single frame "panned" across the background with a shaky camera. Muzzle flash from guns are also out of sync with the blood splattering hit squibs. At times, a few gun fight scenes even look like a bad flash animated internet game.

The most slower paced scenes in between gun fights are more enjoyable and really effective in their combination of lighting, shock factor and designs in conveying a overall scary feel. This is especially true in the first quarter of the film where the suspense is allowed to build nicely. But once the action picks up, the scares die down.

For fans of the game, many would notice the many inconsistencies between this movie and the Dead Space game. For starters in Downfall, the alien artifact is huge, almost as big as an entire hanger bay. In the game, it is only twice the size of a person. Also, the plasma cutters work very differently. In the game, they emit charges of plasma energy that can be used to sever limbs with a click of the mouse. In Downfall, they are presented like lightsaber chainsaws.

In the end, this movie falls short on many levels. What could have made the movie great, such as the power struggle intrigue, the pseudo religious sub plot and the scary atmosphere in the 1st quarter, were cast aside in favour of following tried and tested(see cliché) story plot and themes. The animation is on par with many anime OVAs; better than TV series but not as good as animated movies. A great show to pass some time at home.

While I'm writing this review the current IMDb rating is 6.2 and I find it quite fare.

First of all let me say - I have no idea about the DEAD SPACE game and I'm not a fan of the game, but I am a hardcore animation fan and I follow pretty much everything that comes out. So when I got my hands on this one I was pretty excited - a brand new mature oriented animated feature!! And when I say mature oriented I mean that it has some swear words plus animated violence and blood, which we don't see every day, especially when it comes to western animation (cause if you're into anime you can't complain from the lack of these elements) "Dead Space: Downfall" is above average, but far from brilliant. And the reason for this is mainly the screenplay. The characters lack depth and emotional charge and the story itself is somehow ripping off key elements from John Carpenter's "The Thing" (the designs of the creatures...), Ridley Scott's "Alien" (the intro on the distant planet, the strong female lead, the ship sent by some corrupt institution we never really see...). There's nothing wrong in borrowing already tested classic elements, some fan-service is always welcome. The problem is that the story itself just fails to grab you. There's no background of the characters, too little information about the aim of their trip and the institution that sent them (some kind of a new religious organization... maybe it's the dystopian future when Scienthology rules the Earth?!? OMG!! I can hear Charlton Heston screaming "Damn you all to hell!", we'd prefer the rule of the Apes). The story lacks drama and suspense.

The voice cast is doing more or less OK, I guess that you can't expect them to put into their characters something that's not really there in the script and make them more interesting, so...

The music - during the movie I hardly noticed any music, but the ending credits were quite good I can say. And the use of "Twinkle, twinkle Little Star" is creepy for sure! The character design is very well done, nothing that will totally amaze you, but it fits perfectly well into the atmosphere of the movie. Everything from faces and expressions to clothes and hairstyles is neatly done.

The backgrounds are detailed and not in contrast with the coloring of the characters and the animated objects (unlyke some other animations where you can "feel" what moves and what doesn't just because the animated objects are colored differently). Even the CGI doesn't break the unity and doesn't feel out of place when it's there (mainly for the 3D models of the spaceships) The animation and the directing itself are quite good, well done boys! The perspectives and the camera angles are nice, the movements as well. It's a mixture of traditional western animation with some elements taken from the Japanese school (when it comes to the blood being splattered or the shrinking of the eye-irises for example).

I enjoyed the film, but I Felt disappointed by the story. The animation is stylish enough to accomplish more than that and with better writing it could be something of the class of "Heavy Metal" or "Titan A.E.". STill worth watching, though! Check it out if you have the chance.

Apparently this was supposed to "redefine animation for adults", but there is nothing groundbreaking here, or even adult for that matter. Violence is obviously not something for the kids, but the way it's handled in this movie is incredibly immature, so the only people who could get the most enjoyment out of it are kids. I'm all for gratuitous violence, but blood and guts are only entertaining for so long, it would be nice to have some suspense to go with it, after the first few disembowelments and decapitations I started to lose interest. There are times where the movie seems to be touching on themes that might elevate it above your typical sci-fi gore fest, but those are quickly ignored in favor of more bloodshed. Although we've seen it all before, Dead Space: Downfall is still reasonably entertaining and it's gotten me more interested in the game, so I guess it accomplished what it set out to do. It's just a shame that the people behind it decided to take the easy route by throwing as many body parts across the screen as possible, instead of trying to create a "real" adult animated horror film.

"Dead Space", is considered as one of the greatest video game's ever made. It was both scary and fun. Upon it's release, not only a comic-book series was made, but a Direct-To-Video animated prequel was released.

The thing's I liked about this movie was the animation was great, I liked how they kept the monster's from the video game in the movie, and I liked the story.

The thing's I didn't like about this movie is that the character's were flat and the acting was mediocre. With the exception of Jim Cummings as The Captain and Kevin Michael Richards as Samuel Irons.

Overall, "Dead Space: Downfall", is a decent prequel that's still worth watching only if you're a fan of the game. If not, then this film is not for you.

I'm going to save a lot of people time and money by simply saying buy the game.

Everything story wise is covered within the game, this movie is a prequel to the game. The story, of what happened before the events of the game, unfolds during the game itself.

The story of Dead Space is extremely clever and in-depth, with lots of shocking twists that perfectly suits the game. The story builds the further you go into the game, it's one of the main reasons why the game is so addictive. The movie just sells the story extremely cheaply and in turn spoils the game.

Now maybe playing computer games is not in your taste, the story of Dead Space is great however this movie is executed extremely poorly. The explanation of what is going on is poor, it's extremely short at only 1 hour 14 minutes, the animation is dire and to top it all off you have really annoying characters.

I can't stress enough that watching this movie will spoil what is a great game. Watching the movie first would spoil the story of the game and ruin some great and shocking game play moments.

Buy the game, love it and maybe you'll be interested enough to buy this but don't expect anything special.

This anime was far more entertaining than I'd expected, a pleasant surprise. The animation has a Nickelodeon quality about it and that's the only resemblance to anything nick has ever produced. It's liberal with deep space (surprise!,) aliens, blood, bullets, horror and... bashing... and hacking... and CG, which is good.

It's dumb fun.

Some other movies that come to mind after watching this are Event Horizon, Silent Hill, When they Cry and... Avatar. Many others too, though honestly, this plot and setting, they feel new.

P.S. There is some impressive animation, kudos to the artists.

This is nothing more than a companion, and a compliment to the amazing game by EA games, and it fulfills all expectations i had of it. This manga does not push the limit as far as clever animation, but does offer some pretty interesting moments, the weapons are not spectacular neither are most of the characters, but the aren't out of place either, they fit very well in the Dead Space world. Also this will seem like a cheap ripoff to anyone who hasn't played the game, because so many elements feel like a different movie, such as resident evil, or aliens. But, for fans of the game it is nice to see the USG Ishimura in another light, and see so many nuances to the game that is very cool and satisfying. Don't expect revolutionary, this is best thought of as a really long DS intro, nothing more.

First of all, let me just say that I'm a big fan of Dead Space, the video game. It's a game that offered nothing new, especially not plot-wise (being basically a rehash of Aliens, Thing, Event Horizon and every zombie movie out there), but tied everything it recycled in a neat package which was surprisingly enjoyable to play through.

"Dead Space: Downfall" is sort of a prequel to the game (the game itself starts right after this animated movie ends). As such, it is debatable who should be the target audience for it - folks who played through the game, loved it and want more, folks who are about to play the game and want some sort of plot primer, or people not interested in the game at all but rather at this animated feature as a standalone?

I can say right away that if you belong to the last group, you WILL be disappointed. What you will get out of "DS: Downfall" is a gory cartoon with average animation, weak characters and derivative yet confusing plot. Oh, and F-bombs galore. As I said, you will be far better off if you opt to rewatch Alien trilogy, Thing, Event Horizon or any good zombie flick out there.

If you are about to play the game, than I guess "DS:Downfall" will give you a good idea of what you can expect from the game itself. However, it will also ruin quite a few surprises which I personally think are far better experienced in the game. Ultimately, odds are you will also find "DS:Downfall" confusing, sub-par and not quite worth your time, too.

Finally, we come to fans of the game, people who enjoyed Dead Space so much that they crave more of the good stuff. Will "DS:Downfall" provide? Well, yes and no. First of all, if you finished the game, you have already pieced together the story told in "Downfall". So no surprises there. Furthermore, this feature is far less scary and atmospheric than the game itself - the necromorphs look way more benign in animated form, and the charm and immersiveness are completely absent. You might get a kick of seeing characters and locations you know from the game, although odds are this will be disappointing, too - in "Downfall", every Tom, Dick and Harry wears a jacket with the "spinal HP meter", and none of the weapons from the game appear in the movie (except that I guess the "light sword" the soldiers use is perhaps Downfall's rendition of the Ripper). There's a scene where one of the character dies and you see a close up of the "spinal meter" lowering itself from blue, yellow to finally red, where I guess fans of the game should be gleefully nudging themselves enjoying how this is "right out of the game", but the truth is that this scene is such an obvious fan-service and in itself completely ludicrous and devoid of impact you will most probably simply laugh or smirk. Not to mention that it's a scene already seen in the game, where it played out a little bit differently and a lot more realistically.

Bottom line, you may skip this and not miss much. Even if you are extremely interested in "Dead space lore", this movie will simply re-tell everything you already know. As such, it is really only for the true, hardcore fans, who really cannot live knowing that there is more "Dead Space" stuff out there and they haven't experienced it yet.

4/10, since I *am* a big fan, otherwise - freely lower the score 1 or 2 points further

Very pleased with this setup flick to the game Dead Space. Gives a concrete premise to the game and watching this movie has really peaked my interest. Downfall reminded me slightly of Heavy Metal 2000 in the manner is was drawn, which is a good thing IMO. Character development is short but not needed in this scenario. The monsters are well drawn, believable, spread really fast which keeps the movie going at break-neck at speed.

This flick was very heavy on the GORE, which I love, and set an atmosphere of dread and eeriness till the end. A most excellent animated feature which I recommend you watch, preferably at home, alone, and in the dark.

Once you finish with this you'll definitely being going to buy the game. I'll be doing the same very soon...........

I haven't played the video game yet, because the movie is a prequel story to the game. I liked what I saw! It wasn't the best animated movie I ever saw, but it is really well made and seems to fit nicely into a history. Can't wait for what is going to happen in the game (have seen stills of the movie, which suggests, that the game has a different "cartoon" style than the movie).

As the game is supposed to be, the movie is very violent. The game is supposed to have more scares though. It's graphic (no pun intended), but the horror factor might be low for some people. Characters are very well drawn (again sorry for the pun) and hopefully you'll like this and enjoy it as much as most did here

Back when Electronic Arts released the original 'Dead Space', I happened to download and install the demo. A thirty minute segment that highlighted the darkened horror and survivalist gameplay mechanics. That, well, was enough for me. Far too frightening and involving for me. So when I heard an animated prequel was released, my intrigue once again spiked and perhaps would illicit a fresh wave of adoration for the video game franchise. Sadly, it did the opposite, deterring me away from the games forever. A planetary flight crew discover an extraterrestrial monolithic marker that rapidly turn members into homicidal nightmarish creatures, meaning the remaining individuals must fight to survive.

Thus begins the enduring battle against the animalistic Necromorphs. Yet beneath the blood covering the crevices of the Ishimura and the mundane brutality of limbs being severed, is an undercooked plot circling around faith. Followers of the Church of Unitology demanding to see the newly acquired holy relic, devotees oblivious to the chaotic harm that it has caused. Religious persecution, if you will.

However the writers chose to subdue this interesting strand and instead incorporated a thirty minute montage of crew members being savaged by Necromorphs through some of the most bland, stilted and downright dreadful animation available. Over-textured blurry 3D CGI monstrosities that forced me to question if I had my spectacles on or not, never complementing the basic 2D character designs. The original 'Scooby Doo' series looked better than this, a cartoon created decades ago! The characters themselves had no personality injected into them and instead emanated hard talking shells. "Fight...or die!". "I'm not a hero, just a man!". The voice acting was nearly as tedious as a Bible reading powered by the emotionless tones of Tommy Wiseau. The blood, whilst insurmountable in terms of quantity, was too excessive and tame to be effective.

If it wasn't for the overburden of paranoia, mass hysteria and delusional grandeur, which can be contributing factors for deep space travel, this animated prequel would have nothing going for it. It's just an 'Alien' ripoff, and about as dead as the animators' sense for artistic quality. Just play the game instead.

Decided to give this little gem a re-watch following the release of the Dead Space remake, and it largely holds up as a 'turn your brain off' splatter-mation. However, those who aren't invested in the lore/universe of the Dead Space series won't get much out of this, I feel.

Characters aren't particularly complex, but service the narrative well and are given just enough personality to route for them to avoid an inevitable slaughter, as is generally the case for characters in Dead Space not named Isaac Clarke. Vocal performances are top-notch, with some big talent bought in, too!

Action is decent and well directed. It is genuinely tense seeing our main characters unload oceanic amount of bullets into the Necromorphs and for them to have a minimal effect - some brutal kills are to be expected!

Overall, for a video game movie, pretty good. However, I will note that a better Dead Space prequel story was told in the limited comic series, which I would highly recommend.

It could have been a bit better but it's a Ok comic.

I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone who was not a /DIEHARD/ fan of the game. The audio sync is leaves much to be desired, the animation is painful to watch. Not only do their artists not know how to draw an eye that doesn't look drugged out and just plain off, but they clearly have very little understanding of human body movement. exp: within the first fifteen minutes you get to see the most awkward jacket throw-over ever. It's not cool if it looks painful.

Story-line was somewhat interesting before, but it's really just a combination of stories that sci-fi and anime fans have seen a thousand times over, and this one isn't really worth watching for its unoriginal perspective... Unless you're a die-hard fan of the game.

First of all I enjoyed this movie. Its not a perfect ten out of ten filled with drama, suspense and emotion.Its not that, this is a fun kill kill kill action sc-fi.

The characters aren't done perfectly but their done at the scale of a seven maybe a tad higher. Their not deep, their a bit clichéd but their still fun to have around. I personally enjoyed the heroine for her clichéd bullheadedness.

The story had its interesting parts but for the most part broke even though I felt the ending was fairly solid. Story aside my attention was drawn more to the tid bits on the universe the film takes place in.

The world in which the film takes place is set up nicely enough. It never or rarely felt like the movie forced information down my throat, plus I enjoyed the bits that where thrown my way. These bits might not be dropped perfectly but they weren't pain inducing.

Though the movie did not have me groaning over any particular part there is a reason this movie is a seven and not a ten or an eight. First of all their seems to be pacing issues. Just when it feels there should be sound or emotion the film gives you a scene that's just "ehh".This let down can be seen in multiple scenes, scenes that could have been better with just a touch of line, music or maybe more emotion out of the actors. Either way these scenes could have taken on emotion but they went "ehh".

"Ehh" seems to be this movie's Achilles heel. The film in my viewings had no parts where I felt a scene was painful but their where definitely parts that needed work and ended up being "ehh". That said I enjoyed the movie, it was fun, the story kept my attention, and I enjoyed the heroine for this it has to be seven not good enough to be an eight but not bad enough to be a six.

Had to write a review because I do not agree with the other user comment.

This movie is terrible, the acting is the first thing you notice. It is absolute garbage. There is no sense of tension, no fear, just oh look, dead bodies that kill people now.

Next the story is terrible, everything good about the Dead Space video game is thrown out the window.

The suits are now t-shirts that start out blue.

The guns don't do area damage, bullets just explode on the screen as if they animated first,then added cg bullets to falling bodies

The animation is poor and looks like a Sunday morning cartoon

No more plasma cutter, its just a pistol now

and laser swords???

Whole movie there are only 3 types of monsters, flying, big one, and regular one

If you enjoyed the game, do not watch this movie. It will make you mad.

but to be fair I only watched the first half, then skipped to the action parts and the ending to get closure on this teaming pile.

This isn't by any means an amazing anime film that can hold it's own in a genre that boasts titles like Akira, Princess Monokee and Howl's Flying Kingdom etc...which take us on epic journeys with deeper characters and that indulge in fantasy and sci-fi fun!

That being said this isn't bad though and if you are a fan of the game (which I am) you'll enjoy and be disappointed by Dead Space: Downfall. See in the game it's fun, scary and well paced. This is that as well but all to a lesser degree, mostly do to it's "wooden" feel.

A moderate companion and counter part to the great video game, Downfall earns a very modest 7 out of 10