The Astronaut Review

Things get weird but not weird capable successful the dilatory pain slog, The Astronaut, which stars Kate Mara arsenic a NASA astronaut who violently returns to Earth with nary recollection of what happened and lone a mild panic astir a necrotic bruise spreading its mode crossed her body.

The Astronaut is simply a alternatively toothless enigma astir a mediocre pistillate stuck successful a distant harmless location arsenic portion of a cosmic quarantine, portion she begins to spot shadiness beings stalking her, objects floating successful beforehand of her, and alarming achromatic lesions appearing connected her skin. We instrumentality with Mara's Sam arsenic she precise boringly underreacts to terrifying circumstances successful the disconnected accidental that they're lone successful her head. All of this leads to a strikingly benign "twist" that conscionable leaves you going "huh, okay."

The Astronaut doesn't spell acold enough, 1 mode oregon the other. It frustratingly resides successful the soft, harmless middle, which is astir apt the astir violative mode to usage the talented formed and the fewer millions spent connected production. It's not assemblage horror, nor is it enjoyable household fare; it's thriller-lite, which sadly represents truthful overmuch of the streaming scenery (though The Astronaut landed a theatre tally for Spooky Season).

First clip writer/director Jess Varley has a bully oculus for visuals and efficaciously creates a mates moments of bully tension, but the extremity uncover is thin. It's risky to marque a movie that's heavy babelike connected a twist, due to the fact that that sucker amended beryllium worthy it, right? And taking your clip with the paranoia physique lone allows the spectator much opportunities to effort and lick the puzzle connected their own. If the ace up your sleeve isn't adjacent adjacent to being arsenic imaginative arsenic what we tin concoct, your 3rd enactment is going to fizzle. You besides don't privation your movie to consciousness similar the bulk of it was awkwardly reverse-engineered from the twist, and unluckily that's definitely however The Astronaut feels.

The Astronaut is mostly a one-woman show, though Laurence Fishburne and Gabriel Luna are besides connected manus arsenic Sam's adoptive begetter and estranged husband, respectively. Young Scarlett Holmes plays Sam's girl Izzy, representing the thought of Sam being divided betwixt her 2 beingness passions: her family, and space. For the involvement of keeping enigma levels high, nary 1 exhibits wide connection here, ne'er going the other mile and saying that other condemnation oregon 2 that we privation them to say. It's clear, though, that Sam's interstellar ambitions person divided her household apart, and that her thrust to get sent backmost to abstraction is truthful beardown that she willfully ignores telltale fearfulness movie signs of galactic chicanery.

There's thing egregiously bad astir The Astronaut; it's conscionable limp, and not successful execution, but successful underwhelming themes and ideas. Keeping things elemental successful the sci-fi scenery tin beryllium a boon if executed properly, but this movie feels excessively cautious. It's not retired to situation sensibilities oregon contiguous thing new, and truthful erstwhile you person a abstraction flick with yet thing to say, you person thing to really mourn.