Prospect

The defiantly lo-fi "Prospect" is a smartly entertaining throwback that doesn't need a Marvel movie's worth of CGI to make its point.

The film balances genre thrills with a detailed depiction of prospecting on an alien world, created via a mix of practical locations (shot in a damp Northwestern forest) and some psychedelic digital backdrops.

It's rare to see a sci-fi movie that genuinely has a true grit to it, a characteristic that bolsters its screenplay through its more underwhelming passages.

While the effort is admirable and there are elements that work, Prospect never clicked for me.

There's plenty of evident, if nascent talent.

"Prospect" has one thing that most indie sci-fi movies don't, and which any human desperately needs when traveling to unfamiliar worlds: atmosphere.

Combining elements of The Defiant Ones (1958) and True Grit (whether Henry Hathaway's 1969 original or the Coen brothers' 2010 remake), Prospect may come with the interstellar trappings of sci-fi, but it has as much in common with a frontiers western

While many sci-fi films rely heavily on visual effects and the idiosyncrasies of foreign worlds, Prospect entertains viewers in the best way possible: with substance rather than grandeur.

Hits more than it misses and even when it stumbles, it is still making more of an effort than a lot of recent genre efforts.

Like the pages of Heavy Metal Magazine (aka Metal Hurlant) come to life. Cast excellent. Thatcher and Pascal have True Grit chemistry.

Prospect also moves in bends and inflections that are largely - and pleasantly - unpredictable.

create[s], through imagination and simple effects, a story about prospectors, claim jumpers, survival and greed in what used to be called a "space oater."