Like the design of its alien antagonist, the movie "Sputnik" has things that work and things that don't. Unfortunately it's the things that don't work that make the movie--and the alien-fall apart in its own logic.
What'a great about "Sputnik" is its atmosphere. Every. single. shot. is perfectly structured to feel unsettling. The lighting and placement of certain objects and characters throughout the movie generate a sense of isolation and fear. It's visually gripping from beginning to end.
That being said, a lot of the movie seems to reflect American sci-fi cinema in style, but it is devoid of any understanding as to WHY certain stylings are employed. Hence, a scene that's meant to be heartfelt falls flat because what's needed to make such an emotion work--i.e. tone, dialogue, direction, color pallet--is replaced by stylish nonsense, as if the filmmakers are just repeating what they've seen in better movies. In fact, now that I think about it, the whole movie feels cold and heartless, despite many honest attempts to pack some emotional punch.
As much as I ultimately didn't like this movie, I've got to give credit where credit is due. The screenplay is amazing. You can tell the filmmakers really care about the characters because much thought went into crafting who they are, even if their motivations aren't always clear. The story makes several literal and metaphorical connections to the fearful nature of human beings, the early 1980s time period and Cold War isolationism, and the irony of what makes national heroes... "heroes."
Where "Sputnik" starts to show its cracks, I think, is in the logic, or lack thereof. There are things about the creature that aren't fully explained, so when it does certain supernatural feats we are left scratching are heads with no thought beyond, "Well, at least it looked cool." Characters seem to flip-flop in their decision making, sometimes arriving at conclusions that don't make any sense at all.
And I'm no professor of anything, but when I find myself arriving at solutions to problems that our supposedly highly-educated characters haven't come up with yet, then the movie has a problem. Audiences shouldn't be able to out-think a movie's heroes.
"Sputnik" has what could be called a "surprise ending," but I think most audiences will just find it confusing. Without getting too spoilery, it's an ending that seems to come out of nowhere and for no clear purpose, although it does reveal something interesting about one of the characters. Regardless, why the filmmakers felt we needed that little "twist" feels completely unnecessary. It doesn't play into the movie's A-plot, or even the B-plot, and therefore feels like you could totally remove it without impacting the movie at all.
Ultimately, as cool as "Sputnik" looks, it just more sci-fi space junk.
What'a great about "Sputnik" is its atmosphere. Every. single. shot. is perfectly structured to feel unsettling. The lighting and placement of certain objects and characters throughout the movie generate a sense of isolation and fear. It's visually gripping from beginning to end.
That being said, a lot of the movie seems to reflect American sci-fi cinema in style, but it is devoid of any understanding as to WHY certain stylings are employed. Hence, a scene that's meant to be heartfelt falls flat because what's needed to make such an emotion work--i.e. tone, dialogue, direction, color pallet--is replaced by stylish nonsense, as if the filmmakers are just repeating what they've seen in better movies. In fact, now that I think about it, the whole movie feels cold and heartless, despite many honest attempts to pack some emotional punch.
As much as I ultimately didn't like this movie, I've got to give credit where credit is due. The screenplay is amazing. You can tell the filmmakers really care about the characters because much thought went into crafting who they are, even if their motivations aren't always clear. The story makes several literal and metaphorical connections to the fearful nature of human beings, the early 1980s time period and Cold War isolationism, and the irony of what makes national heroes... "heroes."
Where "Sputnik" starts to show its cracks, I think, is in the logic, or lack thereof. There are things about the creature that aren't fully explained, so when it does certain supernatural feats we are left scratching are heads with no thought beyond, "Well, at least it looked cool." Characters seem to flip-flop in their decision making, sometimes arriving at conclusions that don't make any sense at all.
And I'm no professor of anything, but when I find myself arriving at solutions to problems that our supposedly highly-educated characters haven't come up with yet, then the movie has a problem. Audiences shouldn't be able to out-think a movie's heroes.
"Sputnik" has what could be called a "surprise ending," but I think most audiences will just find it confusing. Without getting too spoilery, it's an ending that seems to come out of nowhere and for no clear purpose, although it does reveal something interesting about one of the characters. Regardless, why the filmmakers felt we needed that little "twist" feels completely unnecessary. It doesn't play into the movie's A-plot, or even the B-plot, and therefore feels like you could totally remove it without impacting the movie at all.
Ultimately, as cool as "Sputnik" looks, it just more sci-fi space junk.