First, let's address the obvious: this movie will be compared to Alien, just as every other space horror film justifiably will be for time immemorial. Alien is better. There, now can we talk about how this movie is mostly awesome?
Casting is spot on with every main being capable and convincing in their performances across the board. None of them are winning best actor in this, but it's not the kind of movie out for those accolades. This sci-fi thriller is about survival and the fear and ruthless energy that drives us to fight for that right. The characters bring a suitable range of emotion, friendship and sparse humor (guess who that role falls on).
Where this movie excels is acting, production and tone. It's solid on every level in those areas. Where this movie suffers is writing, and here's why: the plot and some of the biggest build ups and tension are things we've seen before. Sure, Alien, but also Gravity, Event Horizon, Sphere. Pandorum, etc. Were this my first foray into the space horror genre, I'd be blown away and raving about the merits of this film, but this song has a suspiciously familiar tune, and the lack of originality is, at times, a tone-killer. It feels like the actors are doing their jobs, the crew is doing their job, and everyone is doing a good job, but all those individual notes add up to a cover song of something we've already loved from another artist.
But, let's set aside the lack of originality and concede that this film has gall, and it starts early flaunting its lack of adherence to what you expect. The death of Reynolds's character early on signals a vibe shift to a more sinister, high stakes movie than the early shenanigans imply. No one is safe, and we quickly come to suspect that this might be one of those movies where no one gets out alive. As the Alien(1979)-esque escape and venting of Calvin unfolds, it looks like we might be in for another Ripley ending, but it isn't clear who Ripley will be.
Unfortunately for the crew in this film, there is no Ripley. The flame thrower doesn't work. The airlocks don't always work. Throwing the creature into space doesn't work. Shocking it doesn't work. Suffocating it doesn't work. The crew is woefully incapable of killing, or even harming, this little face hugger-meets-Men In Black-squid-thing. Calvin isn't dying, and despite the valiant attempts of everyone on board, we quickly begin to see that they will need one of those epic long shot plot holes to finish this creature, which comes in the form of an escape pod.
And let's talk about the ending, because...the ending is straight out of Night of the Living Dead and I kind of loved it. It was insanely noir and unsatisfying in a boldly horror-film way. The switched escape pod twist wasn't something I saw coming until the camera started lingering a bit too long on the landed module. Then I suspected it was just a suspense grab, but no, he went all in and did it.
It's not a film for everyone. It's not incredibly original, but this is a film the cast and crew should be proud of, although the writers might want to work on their idea thieving skills because we caught them red handed one too many times on this one.
Casting is spot on with every main being capable and convincing in their performances across the board. None of them are winning best actor in this, but it's not the kind of movie out for those accolades. This sci-fi thriller is about survival and the fear and ruthless energy that drives us to fight for that right. The characters bring a suitable range of emotion, friendship and sparse humor (guess who that role falls on).
Where this movie excels is acting, production and tone. It's solid on every level in those areas. Where this movie suffers is writing, and here's why: the plot and some of the biggest build ups and tension are things we've seen before. Sure, Alien, but also Gravity, Event Horizon, Sphere. Pandorum, etc. Were this my first foray into the space horror genre, I'd be blown away and raving about the merits of this film, but this song has a suspiciously familiar tune, and the lack of originality is, at times, a tone-killer. It feels like the actors are doing their jobs, the crew is doing their job, and everyone is doing a good job, but all those individual notes add up to a cover song of something we've already loved from another artist.
But, let's set aside the lack of originality and concede that this film has gall, and it starts early flaunting its lack of adherence to what you expect. The death of Reynolds's character early on signals a vibe shift to a more sinister, high stakes movie than the early shenanigans imply. No one is safe, and we quickly come to suspect that this might be one of those movies where no one gets out alive. As the Alien(1979)-esque escape and venting of Calvin unfolds, it looks like we might be in for another Ripley ending, but it isn't clear who Ripley will be.
Unfortunately for the crew in this film, there is no Ripley. The flame thrower doesn't work. The airlocks don't always work. Throwing the creature into space doesn't work. Shocking it doesn't work. Suffocating it doesn't work. The crew is woefully incapable of killing, or even harming, this little face hugger-meets-Men In Black-squid-thing. Calvin isn't dying, and despite the valiant attempts of everyone on board, we quickly begin to see that they will need one of those epic long shot plot holes to finish this creature, which comes in the form of an escape pod.
And let's talk about the ending, because...the ending is straight out of Night of the Living Dead and I kind of loved it. It was insanely noir and unsatisfying in a boldly horror-film way. The switched escape pod twist wasn't something I saw coming until the camera started lingering a bit too long on the landed module. Then I suspected it was just a suspense grab, but no, he went all in and did it.
It's not a film for everyone. It's not incredibly original, but this is a film the cast and crew should be proud of, although the writers might want to work on their idea thieving skills because we caught them red handed one too many times on this one.