A
young woman named Eve (Audie England) escapes from a futuristic island prison
and winds up in a resort area. She befriends
a pill-popping woman (Meredith Salenger) who shows her kindness and takes her
in. When her host disappears
mysteriously, Eve is left to her own devices.
She then noodles around on her Virtual Reality headset and begins
frequenting online sex rooms. She even
manages to find love with her cyberspace boyfriend (Billy Wirth) in real life. Eventually, another prisoner (Costas
Mandylor) comes looking for Eve, which threatens to ruin everything for her.
There
are times where Venus Rising almost feels unfinished. I don’t know if the budget ran out of money or
if the script was already wonky to begin with.
It tosses a lot of elements together like prison escapes, futuristic
advances (there’s a silver pyramid that offers mood-enhancing pills), and
Virtual Reality (which was big at the time and is now enjoying a sizeable renaissance
today), but nothing really sticks. The sci-fi
elements seem half-hearted at best (or maybe that was due to the restrained
budget) and are incongruous with the main thrust of the action. It’s also slow
moving, awkwardly paced, and not very involving.
Its
biggest crime though is that it manages to waste a good cast that includes Joel
Grey, Dennis Dun, Morgan Fairchild, and Jessica Alba (who plays a young version
of Eve in a dream/flashback). None of
them are given anything remotely useful to do, which makes the movie even more
frustrating. I guess it would be one
thing if Audie England could carry the film on her own accord, but she just
doesn’t have the chops to portray a likeable heroine.
In
short, Venus Rising sinks to the bottom of the barrel.
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