I.S.S.

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If you'll forgive the pun, this one has been sort of floating under the radar this January. Despite it being a wide release, it debuted at #7 in the American Box Office, and the following week got bumped off the Top 10 to #12. So it has not been doing well. That being said, I have to say that on the whole, this isn't really a bad film. I think to some degree we are pretty brainwashed into taking January releases for granted, because for the most part, this is a movie that plays on paranoia and antitrust quite well and provides a solid thriller for the start of the year.

But don't get the wrong idea here either. The film is far from perfect, and if you don't like loose or open endings, you're definitely not gonna like where this goes with things. On top of that, I'm almost 100% certain that if a real astronaut were to watch this, they'd be able to point out flaw after flaw after flaw. Heck, I don't know a whole lot about how things work in space, and even I was questioning some validity to some of the stuff I saw. But if you're able to get past all of that and just treat it as a suspense thriller for entertainment purposes, I think it does a decent job.

We are introduced to a group of three NASA astronauts, including our lead, Kira Foster (Ariana DeBose), Christian Campbell (John Gallagher Jr.) and Commander Gordon Barrett (Chris Messina), and three Russian Cosmonauts, Weronika Vetrov (Masha Mashkova) and brothers, Nicholai (Costa Ronin) and Alexy Pulov (Pilou Asbæk). Kira, being new to the group, sort of plays the audience here as she's introduced to life on the International Space Station where she not only has to deal with adapting to things like 0-gravity sleeping conditions, but also has to deal with a bit of a language barrier with the Russians.

All in all, however, things go pretty well on board the I.S.S. The group gets along despite their cultural differences, and as they view the humbling beauty of Earth from way up high, there's a pretty nice moment in which it's discussed that despite their many differences down on Earth, up on the I.S.S., none of that matters. They don't have to bring their on-planet issues up there, where they can give real meaning to the term "teamwork". But while that all sounds very nice, we are here to watch a suspense thriller, so of course, we know some things aren't meant to last.

One day (if that means anything in space) while working away, the crew of the I.S.S. witnesses a massive nuclear holocaust take place on Earth. While communications aboard the I.S.S. fail when trying to get in touch with Earth, both the Americans and Russians receive word that war has broken out on Earth, and further instructions take the I.S.S. by any means necessary. To make matters worse, they are hovering too close to Earth and need Earth's assistance for course correction, or else plummet towards the planet. So there's quite a bit going on here to make the tension rise.

As far as I'm concerned, this is a movie that pretty much nails the suspense-factor, and even plays on the general fear of the overall emptiness and soundlessness of space. For a good first half of the movie, it's really quite good. But it's not really to last. The film does admittedly get to a point of near silliness after a while, and all the tension that was making it good to begin with kind of flies out the window. It doesn't do any of it with any amount of humour either, so it does feel like a movie that takes itself more seriously than it probably should.

This is a movie that I really wanted to check out based on the trailer alone. I love me a good suspense movie that takes place in space, so it felt kind of up my alley. It worked, for the most part, and I could even give some of the silliness a bit of leeway, but the fact of the matter is that the ending leaves far too many unanswered questions. I usually like open-ended movies, but this was just too much. It's fine and passable as a decent suspense movie to stream some dreary evening, but even the shots of space aren't enough to make it worth the price of admission. While I stll think it might be a bit overcriticised, It's still just... fine.

3/5

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