This animated film by the Scandinavian filmmaker Henrik Bjerregaard Clausen gives you an eyeful of pretty pictures to gawk at and a very funny ending.
The movie is about a slacker named Marvin who's stuck out in the middle of space in a clunky old spacecraft that's always malfunctioning. He's kind of like Phillip Fry in Futurama, except whereas the Planet Express Ship whisked Fry and his fellow package deliverers across the galaxy in what seemed like a matter of minutes, Marvin's ship is a bit more deliberate. ETA stands for Estimated Time of Arrival, which in this case is 2 years, 173 days, 16 hours and 48 minutes. Whew!
Without giving too much away, all I can say is that Clausen can thank his lucky stars that he got the blessing of Oscar-winning designer H.R. Giger. I love the cute little tongue-hands that come out of the alien's mouth. Genius!
The movie shows an attention to detail and set design that would make Giger proud. The slow dolly shots and shadowy lighting create an atmosphere of dread, which makes the conclusion even more surprising and funny.
