Rating: D+
Dir: Phil Lord and Christopher Miller
Star: Ryan Gosling, Sandra Hüller, James Ortiz, Lionel Boyce
I was really looking forward to this, having enormously enjoyed The Martian, also based on a book by Andy Weir. So it pains me no end to report I found this highly underwhelming in comparison. It’s probably the most disappointing film I’ve seen this year, in terms purely of falling short of expectations. If you want something which demonstrates the use of the term “crowd-pleasing movie” as a pejorative, here you go. Bland, stretched far beyond what it needs to be, and misfiring on most levels beyond the technical. In other words, everything The Martian was not. This is only a few minutes longer, but boy, I found it a slog by the end.
Perhaps the main issue is the way this has only one problem: alien bacteria are eating the sun. OK, I get why that is an concern. But it’s in contrast to The Martian, which provided an absolute assembly-line of life-threatening dilemmas for Matt Damon to resolve. Here, we join reluctant astronaut Ryland Grace (Gosling) as he arrives at Tau Ceti, a star system immune to the bacteria. The other crew members are dead, so it’s up to him to find out why. The film then opts to bog itself down with repeat flashbacks explaining how he got there. As well as a scene where task force head, Eva Stratt, (Hüller) does karaoke, which I’m sure seemed a good idea at some point in the writing process.
The main emotional focus here is on the relationship between Grace and an alien from another planet (both puppeteered and voiced by Ortiz) who arrived at exactly the same place and time as the earthling. And, whaddya know, Rocky is also the sole survivor of his crew. What are the odds? It is totes adorbs, to the point the extraterrestrial feels more like a focus group product. Communication – something I’d have said would be near-impossible – is established with almost facile ease, then guess what? Rocky is really just like us! Well, save the whole “made of rock” thing. Before you have a chance to get on Amazon and order your Rocky plushie, it and Grace are fist-bumping and sharing vulnerabilities.
This feels like bits pulled from far better SF movies, covering everything from Interstellar to Contact, ruthlessly purged of anything which might challenge or remotely concern the audience, replacing it instead with fluff. Y’know the Grogu drinking soup meme? This is that, extended to 156 minutes in length. It’s SF, only if the S stands for sentimentality. I will say, the visual elements are well-done, and on occasion spectacular. But any weight you might have considered appropriate, given the whole “imminent world destruction” thing, is consistently undermined by weak stabs at comedy. Grace falls over things. See? He’s relatable because he’s clumsy! Going by the box-office receipts, it must just be me, but I was hoping for something a bit more than Ted Lasso in Space.