Doing a parody of science fiction is usually a sure-fire loser, since the genre is itself a parody of reality taken to wild extremes. Few sci-fi parodies score a bullseye and, sadly, Jared Whitham’s “Project Omicron” misses the target by the proverbial mile.
The main problem with this small, dinky, black-and-white film is its slavish attempts to recreate the small, dinky, black-and-white films of the 1950s that sent men into space in toy rockets. The old B-Movies are funny because their creators were clearly clueless and the laughs are unintentional.
“Project Omicron” is not funny because the filmmaker knows exactly what he is doing and there is no humor in offering a contemporary flick with toy rockets and aliens dangling over conspicuous strings.
This is actually a shame, as the film has a nicely weird plot about a military test pilot who flies an alien spacecraft into the heavens, only to lose touch with the Earth and fall into a time warp where he mutates into an alien. There is also a funky score by someone named Sir Millard Mulch, who also turns up on screen as the extravagantly named Millard the Malfunctioning Android!
Unfortunately, the heavy-handed Ed Wood touches by director Whitham and the overall flatness of his no-name cast condemn the film to instant boredom. If anything, “Project Omicron” makes one hungry for an old-fashioned B-Movie and its main success is inspiring the cheapie films of yesteryear to look classy and entertaining in comparison.
