Stowaway ( Film 2021)

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Star – Toni Colette & Anna Kendrick My Rating *** Genre – Sci-Fi Run Time – 1 hr 56 Minutes. Certificate – 15 Country – U.S.A = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Stowaway is the second feature from Brazilian director Joe Penna, who wrote and directed Arctic (2018), that movie originally to be set on Mars but diluted, relocated and delayed by The Martian (2015), the Matt Damon movie - some of that far more intelligent Ridley Scott movie in this one. In the near future a 2-year mission to Mars by a private Elon Musk style space set-up launches from Earth, Commander Marina Burnett (Toni Collette) docking with their deep zero gravity space station in high orbit that will fire them off to the Red Planet. The big burn goes well, medical researched Zoe Levenson (Anna Kendrick) and Biologist David Kim (Daniel Dae Kim) also on the team. Settling in on the first day Burnett notices a red liquid dripping from a panel above her. She opens it up, only for a large unconscious black man with a wound to come tumbling down on top of her. It appears the ship has a stowaway and some of the stricture has been damaged where he was working, unclear if he was still working on it when the rocket launched, clearly not excepting to be in space when he comes around as not wearing a space suit and just his work kit and name tag, Michael Adams (Shamier Anderson), a support engineer. It’s the last thing you expect in space but the commander and crew have to deal with it as they can’t turn around now. The problems come thick and fast. Michael is extra weight and food and they will have to keep him occupied and mentally right for the six month out journey... on Mars for one whole year and back again. But rather critically the damage to the space ship is a circuit in life support and they don’t have enough air to get to Mars or, at least, all four of them. They need solutions fast. ===Results=== Sometimes Sci-Fi is just plain dumb but nobody dare say it, however dressed up, well acted and reviewed. This film gets itself in a pickle right on the launch pad when the stowaway is a stocky young black guy with an engineering degree but dumb enough to be blasted into space whilst working on a rocket. Where do you go from there? White savior is where you go. It appears all stowaways in the movies are black, even in space. There is just no way in the current BLM movement atmosphere they can dump him in space to complete the mission. That left the director in another muddle on how to end the movie, which he can’t, and so doesn’t, sort of. The ending could be described as cliché at best. In one scene the biologist breaks the news to Michael that if he does ‘A’ then he can save them all the time and worry. But if you have seen the movie, or you were in the same bind, you would use A to not become surplus to requirements. Its silly moments like that you begin to lose faith in what is a great looking and engaging movie. It just runs out of gravity and things start flying around the room. There is enough tension to keep you involved but familiar space tropes and jeopardy come thick and fast although for once no micro meteor storm. It’s well cast with a feminist slant but it becomes a moral tale. It could have been better and deeper with the right director and cast. Fluffy rom-com chicks don’t make a Ripley. ===RATINGS=== Imdb.com 5.6 /10.0 23,324(votes) Rottentomatos.com –77% critic’s approval Metacritic.com – 63% critic’s approval ===Trailer=== 22:01 05/05/2021