In spite of the bad to meh reviews, I decided to watch this, because, Dude, it"s Kara "Starbuck" Thrace, who I'd watch in a one woman show consisting of her, reading the ingredients off a box of hamburger helper. But seriously, it's Katee Sackhoff, (or IS it?) as Mackenzie, one of the last remaining humans manning a NASA like facility, after the aforementioned Mars mission, (which she convinced he reluctant Father to go on) makes it to within a hundred feet of the surface, and then explodes for no apparent reason. So, besides all the latent guilt for convincing Dada to go, when he (perhaps presciently) didn't want to, the higher ups, looking to affix blame, kinda make her and her former supervisor, Brooks, the fall guys, and convert the facility, and all future missions to robotic A.I. with her as the supposed minder.

She is SUPPOSED to be running the mission to drop a rover on the crash site to see just WTF made the landing go pear shaped, when the A.I., affectionately called Arti (get it... A.R.T.I.) pretty much takes over and launches the mission early. "Mack" in a panic, calls the big boss who also happens to be her big sister, who inherited the gig when Daddy got spread all over the Martian landscape. (yep, it's still all about WHO you know in the future) only to be informed that she put the machine in charge, cuz, you know, we don't really trust humans to make the REALLY important decisions anymore, since , the incident.

Seeing that it looks like it's time to hold em, or fold and walk away, Mack acquiesces, and things appear to be going well when, Damn, it's Deja Vu all over again and the mission is about to go VERY sideways as Arti chooses to fold em' due to there being only a 3% chance of success. Starbuck, er, Mack does some of that voodoo that she doos so well, and ups the odds to 43%, which Arti concedes is better than he could do and so he (it?) makes the course corrections that save the lander. The two grudgingly begin to bond, as each begins to realize they are better as a team.

Cue the obligatory impending Martian dust storm on steroids, and a mysterious signal of "unknown origin", and then, they decide to send the rover to see what it can see. And Lo and Behold, it finds.... THE BORG! I kid you not, it finds a fracking' Borg Cube!!! So, they decide to say hello by way of "we come with dental tools" and they shove a drill bit up the backside of an obviously technologically advanced piece of machinery, and, in a pleasant turn of events, the cubes resistance was futile, and they were essentially able to "key" the paint job, and chip off a microscopic sample for analysis. And you guessed it,.... the sample turns out to be....., Nanites! Oh Snap!

Now, HERE's where it starts to get weird. ( OK, silly) Above the planet, something BAD is about to happen, so Arti decides to take rather DRASTIC action, which somehow triggers the Borg cube to start twerking and doing a bad Cardi B impression, sans the pole, as fireworks ensue, and then,...... it's gone! WTFRACK??? Then instantaneously, somewhere deep in the Antarctic, what should appear but....., Frack, Frack and double Frackilation!

Wait, is this first contact, or, did the Cube just phone home? Is it ours? Is it theirs? Just who are THEY? Questions arise, malfeasance and shenanigans ensue, and, just like Sarah Conner warned us..., Skynet decides WE are the virus, and decides it's time for a world wide inoculation....

.And THEN it gets even weirder (OK, downright roll me in flour and call me a biscuit sillier) Cue the 2001: A Space Odyssey light show....

The Turing Test proposed that a computer can be said to possess artificial intelligence if it can mimic human responses under specific conditions, or, on a mega scale, if you were actually IN the Matrix, how would you know, unless someone like Morpheus pointed it out?

Is Mack still Mack? Didn't we just see her shed her mortal coil? Or, was she ever REALLY alive? Is this the present, past, or future prologue?

This IMO is the point where an intriguing concept gets muddled up like the writers and directors didn't quite know how to close the deal. The third act just misses the mark in selling what was an interesting concept, because of poor execution, or just simply not knowing where to go. It reminds me a bit of "Moon" with Sam Rockwell, but not as well conceived. Katee Sackhoff does a yeoman's job with what she is given, but, yes, the C movie FX, do tend to pull you out of disbelief. So, as Agent 86 used to say..., they "Missed it by THAT much". Close, but no cigar, if you decide to stick with it to the end.

Only one year after "The Beyond", director Hasraf Dulull releases his next take on the Sci-Fi genre in form of "2036 Origin Unknown". And once again we get a movie that is quite boring. Even more than "The Beyond". For pretty much the entire runtime Katee Sackhoff (who is mostly known for the lesbian merc who wanted to get laid by Riddick...) is alone in one room, communicating with the A.I. system of the ship or her character's sister via a monitor. And here we get the main problem. Let's face it, Katee Sackhoff is not a Tom Hanks kind of actress, to pull this off properly and you feel that very early on in the movie. She does a decent job working with what she is given, but in the end this movie is very monotone and yes, boring. On top you do get some shots from "Mars", but nothing that even get's close to look good at all. If you are looking for that, watch "The Martian". "2036 Origin Unknown" doesn't feel terrible or unwatchable, it just feels like a waste of time. Even for hardcore Sci-Fi fans.

It starts out very strong and does fall apart by the end, but it's still worth watching if you're into sci-fi. Don't expect everything to be bluntly explained.