Thursday, January 25, 2024

'I.S.S.' A Review

I.S.S. is a scifi thriller about what the US/Russian personnel do on the International Space Station after nuclear war breaks out on Earth.

Ariana DeBose as Dr. Kira Foster is somewhat out of her element, the premise doesn't really play into her natural charisma and the script on its own is not great. She struggles to make sense of the contrived plot and her attempts at imbuing it with genuine emotion not only aren't successful but serve to reveal with additional clarity the failings of the screenplay. Chris Messina is wonderful and also seems to understand, more so than any of the other cast members, what movie he is in. The movie isn't terrible and there's the germ of a decent pulpy popcorn pleasing idea in there but director Gabriela Cowperthwaite(primarily a documentarian) is out of her element, as is DeBose, as is the movie's heavy John Gallagher Jr. You can just feel that the script was either re-written by too many people or rushed into production.

All the production elements are actually pretty great, it looks good, the actors move through the space believably, the space suits, the set dressing, its all around solid. Its just a shame that, at the end of the day, its just kind of boring and in attempting to provide emotional stakes as well as some decent action/thriller elements neither aspect is delivered in a satisfactory way.

Failure to launch.

Currently in theaters, coming soon to VOD.

Don't See It.

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