The crew of the MTS-42 are set for a two-year mission to Mars. There is mission commander Marina Barnett (Toni Collette), biologist David Kim (Daniel Dae Kim), and medical researcher Zoe Leverson (Anna Kendrick). They have hardly begun their Mars Transfer orbit when Barnett discovers blood on the floor. After unscrewing a panel, a man falls on her, breaking her arm. The man is unconscious. However, he had a badge that identifies him as Michael Adams (Shamier Anderson), a launch support engineer. Unfortunately, the carbon-dioxide scrubber was damaged beyond repair and the ship cannot support everyone all the way to Mars. The one potential solution is deemed too risky. While Barnett and Kim are resigned to tossing Adams out of an airlock, Zoe is determined to save him. The risky solution would have them climb the tether to the counterbalance that provides the artificial gravity. It may have unused liquid oxygen. Zoe is determined to try.
The movie only has the four characters. There are no scenes with ground control. In fact, all the conversations with ground control are one-sided since you cannot hear what ground control is saying. Very different from Apollo 13. Zoe is the central character and Anna Kendrick does a good job in the role.
There were some things that were annoying. How did Michael get sealed behind a panel? One expects a story about him sneaking aboard and having a cohort seal him in. Nope, he just accidentally got stuck behind a panel where the mission critical life support system was housed. Okay. Speaking of the mission critical life support system, why is there no backup? They couldn't even jury rig a fix. Why weren't they using some sort of tether when doing their spacewalk? They have special equipment to climb the tether but nothing to attach them if they slip. Gah! Since the stowaway angle was hardly explored, the movie could just as easily have been the same system failure that required all the same steps. The stowaway angle added little beyond knowing which person was likely to get spaced. Finally, why did the man have to be pathetic? During the launch, he vomits in a bag. When transferring to the space station, Zoe carries his bag. When climbing the tether, he's winded and clumsy. And it wasn't just him. Michael is too uncoordinated to help. Save us, strong woman, save us! Ugh!
There were too many inconvenient coincidences to make the story work. It looks good and the ship is cool, but the plot is too much of a stretch. The plot holes just grated. Skip.
No comments:
Post a Comment