[ad_1]
One particular subgenre of movies that I like is near-future science fiction stories that are meant to be fairly realistic and based on some sort of plausible science. There may be one or two more fantastical elements, such as the possibility of extraterrestrial life, but we’re not talking about Star Wars or Star Trek here.
The godfather of them all, and still one of the greatest films of all time, 2001: A Space Odyssey depicts space travel and life on the moon as accurately as audiences have ever seen. was doing.
In recent years, the critically and commercially acclaimed 2013’s Gravity and the criminally underrated 2009’s Moon are two of my favorites, but the onslaught of films like this is a disappointing take on “Ad Astra” and “The Midnight Sky,” from 2015’s Best Picture nominee “The Martian.”
This brings us to the latest and least promoted of these films: ISS. It has no A-list stars, virtually no advertising, and was canceled in January. This is one of the worst omens a new release can have.
It’s not particularly controversial, and it’s not a bad movie by any means, but it’s also not particularly memorable and faces an uphill battle of not doing anything new or interesting. The special effects are great and a lot of fun, but at least many of the titles mentioned above remain memorable decades later. I can’t say that I remember “ISS” in February.
Rookie astronaut Dr. Kira Foster (played by Ariana DeBose) is joined by two American astronauts (Chris Messina and John Gallagher Jr.) and three Russian astronauts (Masha Mashkova, Costa Ronin and Pilou Asbaek) were the last to arrive at the International Space Station.
Once biologist Foster is welcomed aboard the ship, things are calm and cool at first, but it soon becomes clear that the other five crew members aboard the ISS work as a family, dealing with personal differences and political differences. I have learned to put aside our differences and focus on the work we do to better humanity.
However, a nuclear war breaks out on Earth, and tensions rise. Disturbed by the lack of communication below, the astronauts secretly receive orders from their respective countries on the ground. The mission was to take control of the ISS by any means necessary.
Well, when the movie starts, I’m pretty excited about it and it looks like it’s going to be a standout among these movies. DeBose’s character is a proxy for the setting and other characters, so we only understand the layout of her ISS (about 100 yards long but all narrow corridors) as much as she does. The claustrophobic feeling of being trapped in an unfamiliar structure with people you don’t know yet works well in the first act, despite the focus on friendship and friendships building. I am.
So when footage of a nuclear war appears in the window and the six suddenly find themselves inadvertently becoming rival teams of three, tensions over their relationship begin to play out. We only see things through Foster’s eyes, and by extension, what the other Americans have told her, so we see things like one of the Russians giving them a suspicious look, and a person on the ISS. Something as simple as hinting that help is needed elsewhere builds the suspense. .
It would have been great if the movie had stayed in that paranoid space of secretly gathering around the train station, peeping, and saying something if another character said something. . But of course, the audience can’t trust metaphors or stand-alone stories, so a few silly action scenes that use scientific laws that you don’t need to be an astronaut to understand don’t make sense.
Credit where credit is due, all the performances were excellent, with the combination of sound design and score amplifying the claustrophobic setting and lack of actual sound in the space. But when a symbolic World War III is being waged in a space the size of a soccer field, it becomes a cliché of punching, kicking, and strangling each other in zero gravity. , is not suitable as a memorable mystery novel.
[ad_2]
Source link
