Despite its great cast and fun premise, a limited budget and dumb character decisions results in a frustrating experience.
PLOT: Tensions flare in the near future aboard the International Space Station as a conflict breaks out on Earth. Reeling, the US and Russian astronauts receive orders from the ground: take control of the station by any means necessary
REVIEW: Ever since its inception, the fear of a lingering nuclear war has existed. Often in film, we see the impact of these events and the apocalyptic world that would result. So, the concept of war breaking out while scientists representing two different countries are asked to take over the International Space Station is an interesting one. Relations with Russia aren’t exactly great, so it’s easy to see these two sides in conflict with each other. But in many ways, I.S.S. feels like last year’s 65, with an intriguing trailer that is hampered by its budget/script.
Oscar Winner Ariana DeBose stars as a scientist just getting acclimated to her job on the I.S.S. Her character isn’t developed a ton, but DeBose is a great actress, so she does well with what she’s given. She works well as the audience surrogate. I usually love Chris Messina, but I’m unsure what he was doing in this one. His performance is uneven and even a little unintentionally funny at times. And John Gallagher Jr. seems to play a similar role in most of the films I’ve seen him in. He does a good job of being a subtly unlikable prick.
But the real highlight is Pilou Asbæk‘s Alexey. Most will likely know the actor from Game of Thrones, which sets a certain expectation for his alliance. He’s easily the most complex character and someone I wish was focused on a little more. In fact, I kind of wish there was more time spent with the Russians, as they feel more developed than the Americans. Getting cheated on isn’t exactly a character trait.
One of their more interesting choices is to fully embrace the zero gravity of it all. It provides for some really fun moments, like the guy sleeping with his eyes open and floating around. But there are far more scenes where it’s very clear they’re just strapped in at the waist to a wire rig. One shot in particular follows DeBose as she maneuvers through the ship, and it’s very poorly done. And I really enjoyed how much they kept the war on earth a mystery, and the focus stayed with the I.S.S. crew.
Unfortunately, the human conflict just isn’t enough, and they feel the need to add issues with the ship to ramp things up. Falling out of the sky is an element that never needs to be added. If anything, it just shows that they had little faith that the human drama would carry viewer interest. This is fair because there’s only so much distrust you can sow amongst six people in such a short period of time.
And it’s really quite the decision to make such an FX-heavy film with such a small budget. It becomes painfully obvious that there are large limitations in place. After movies like Gravity and Star Wars, mediocre space work doesn’t cut it. It’s hard not to chuckle at the fights as they try to simulate the lack of gravity. This is too bad because there are interesting ideas, but they aren’t executed well in the frame.
Dumb character decisions plague the movie’s second half, and most of the potential feels wasted. Not to mention the sheer number of times when people can conveniently do sneaky things amongst the rather small space station. Some laughably stupid moments do their best to ruin anything that would be considered a positive. I really enjoyed the tension of the first half, but the second half destroys nearly all of that. Bad CGI, poor decision-making, and several plot threads that go nowhere result in one of the year’s most disappointing films.
I.S.S. IS IN THEATERS ON JANUARY 19TH, 2023.
5