‘Lumina’ Review: A Soap Opera That Thinks It’s a Space Opera

variety.com:

Michael Nordine There’s ambition exceeding your grasp, and then there’s “Lumina.” The brainchild of writer-director-producer Gino McKoy, who also wrote several songs appearing on the soundtrack, this alien-abduction drama could have used more time on the mothership.

The film itself can be likened to a low-flying spacecraft assembled from mismatched parts belonging to other, more fully realized sci-fi flicks.

Where “Close Encounters of the Third King” hovers gracefully, “Lumina” crash-lands. Its ambitions are lofty, but they’re also undermined at nearly every turn by chintzy visual effects that prove more distracting than immersive and uniformly wooden performances.

It wants to be a space opera but is closer to a soap opera, albeit one that would air on Syfy rather than CBS. The first few scenes alternate between spacey sci-fi and earthbound relationship drama, initially in a way that leaves you guessing as to how these narrative strands are connected and whether they even belong in the same movie.