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21/09/19 Filed in: Cinema
Another space adventure. This time somewhere between science fact and science fiction. Using credible space vehicles, such as vertical launched rockets, and space stations, albeit somewhat more advanced than what we have now, we are asked to look into the perhaps not too distant future. The big question for me, given the reliance on such contemporary space technology, is how did they ship all the equipment to the Moon and Mars to create those amazing bases?
Putting the credibility analysis aside, here we have a story that centres on one man, Roy McBride, who we first see working on the exterior of a space station when it is struck by an energy pulse, causing him to tumble to Earth. These energy pulses are causing havoc on Earth and having recovered from his unexpected return to the surface, Roy is summoned to a meeting. He assumes it will be a debrief, but in fact it turns out to be related to the energy pulses.
He learns that his father, H Clifford McBride, a space hero who was lost on a mission many years earlier, was experimenting with an antimatter device, and the top brass believe it is this device that is causing the energy pulses, which have the potential to destroy Earth. Roy is interviewed with a view to him journeying to Mars, where an underground facility is unaffected by the pulses, and from where he will be asked to send a message to his father. This will enable his father to be located and the antimatter device destroyed.
The journey is far from uneventful. On the Moon there are pirates marauding between the home base and the Mars' launch site. This provides an excuse for some lively Moon buggy action. Roy had been assigned a 'minder', one Colonel Thomas Pruitt, but after the pirate episode Pruitt is unable to make the Mars trip. There are some more surprises in store for Roy when he gets to Mars. He learns some not too palatable truths about his father and, having succeeded in making contact with him, is removed from the deep-space expedition to Neptune where his father has been located.
But, of course, there would be no story if Roy doesn't go, and furthermore this film is all about Roy coming to terms with the fact that his father left him and his mother, so of course there has to be a father and son reunion.
Reviews have been mixed, the critics feeling more positive (82%) than audiences (47%) on Rotten Tomatoes. This is probably because the story dwells much more on Roy's emotional issues than outright space action, audiences unfortunately having been fed a succession of CGI action extravaganzas over the past few years that have perhaps coloured their expectations.
I found the technical parts of the film to be quite convincing, although as I said at the beginning there were certainly some aspects that pushed credibility. But for me it was an honest attempt to portray a potentially realistic space environment. Some of the action sequences do, of course, cross the credibility threshold, but at the end of the day it's fiction and not a documentary.
Brad Pitt plays Roy, a brooding ice-cool astronaut whose pulse rate has never been known to exceed 80! This thought might have been inspired by reference to John Young, the commander of Apollo 16, who recorded the lowest heart rate during a Saturn V launch, an amazing 70 beats per minute. Just think about that! Donald Sutherland is Colonel Pruitt and Tommy Lee Jones is well cast as Roy's somewhat deranged father.
But, of course, there would be no story if Roy doesn't go, and furthermore this film is all about Roy coming to terms with the fact that his father left him and his mother, so of course there has to be a father and son reunion.
Reviews have been mixed, the critics feeling more positive (82%) than audiences (47%) on Rotten Tomatoes. This is probably because the story dwells much more on Roy's emotional issues than outright space action, audiences unfortunately having been fed a succession of CGI action extravaganzas over the past few years that have perhaps coloured their expectations.
I found the technical parts of the film to be quite convincing, although as I said at the beginning there were certainly some aspects that pushed credibility. But for me it was an honest attempt to portray a potentially realistic space environment. Some of the action sequences do, of course, cross the credibility threshold, but at the end of the day it's fiction and not a documentary.
Brad Pitt plays Roy, a brooding ice-cool astronaut whose pulse rate has never been known to exceed 80! This thought might have been inspired by reference to John Young, the commander of Apollo 16, who recorded the lowest heart rate during a Saturn V launch, an amazing 70 beats per minute. Just think about that! Donald Sutherland is Colonel Pruitt and Tommy Lee Jones is well cast as Roy's somewhat deranged father.