Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

good back-story, and good acting

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

"Enigma" is a 7-year-old 42-minute short film that got a bit of a boost recently as it was made by the Shumway brothers and one of them is an Academy Awards nominee this year for his special effects work on "The Revenant". But back to this film here: It is really generic sci-fi work. The story is not too good and same goes for the acting. Really nothing to keep you interested, let alone on the edge of your seat. The only thing somewhat memorable here were the non-human creatures, the good one and the evil ones, so the film's special effects are also the movie's biggest strength here. Not enough though to let me recommend this one. Thumbs down.

For a forty-three minute film, this is very well paced. There is only a single scene where some viewers might say "Get to the action already." Fortunately, this scene is short and used for necessary character (and ship) development.Speaking of scenes, there's a fight scene that was nice to watch if not slightly crowbarred in (Wait, what? Oh, it's a fight scene), and props to everyone involved for doing a jump scare that I failed to see coming.Right off the bat, this appears to be a low budget movie with actors who will be much better with two more years of experience. Upon accepting this, I found the movie very enjoyable and having a rabbit hole of a story that has the most important and interesting parts carefully revealed during the last ten minutes.I would like to see Enigma's universe expanded upon with novels or comics someday. There's clearly something there that is only hinted at during the movie. Anyone who enjoys analyzing stories will definitely like the ending, not that it's vague. It just presents something unexpected and interesting without wasting fifteen minutes thoroughly explaining it.I can hear my mother now asking me to explain what the ending meant. If you're that type of person, I would recommend watching this with someone who doesn't mind explaining endings to you. Not to say that it's complicated, though. Some people--my mother included--might walk away with a few questions burning their brain.

I watched this because in the blurb on Amazon Prime it mentioned "Winner 20+ festival awards". I really don't know how it won any awards unless the other nominees were horrible. First, anyone with at least a third grade education knows there is no sound in space, yet anytime a scene went to an exterior shot of ships in space there were loud engine sound effects. That alone is a deal breaker. The plot was nothing new. The acting was wooden and contrived. The dialogue was simplistic and boring. The fight scenes were poorly shot and apparently choreographed by someone who has never, ever used a firearm or seen actual hand-to-hand combat. The story was confusing at best. Imagine missing the first and third acts of something like "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" and trying to make sense of it after viewing only the second act. With an estimated budget of $50,000 it is clear they spent it on sets and some special effects, because if they spent any of it on writing, directing, acting and choreography, they are due a large refund. Save yourself the 42 minutes and do something more entertaining like watching the grass grow.

I watched this on Amazon because I like Sci-Fi and the premise seemed decent and IMDb had an 8.0 rating (although only 53 votes at the time). Although I know how IMDb early votes are usually high, because they are mostly from those whom worked on the film, I figured it might be decent anyway.I was wrong! It was a tough 40+ minutes, especially in the beginning. The acting was poor overall and the dialogue contrived. Did not expect very good SFX cause it was a short, but was surprised that they did not even use lighting well in the scenes.The story and premise I thought might be good turned out to be mundane.My advice, ignore the rating on IMDb, and only watch if you are extremely bored, like experimental stuff, or have seen EVERYTHING else and just want something you have not seen. Otherwise skip it!