A film’s Rotten Tomato score can be wrong. Even though THE MIDNIGHT SKY is flawed, this is one of those times.
The plot is simple – 2049 and humans have destroyed the Earth. There’s a spaceship involved and it might be humankind’s last hope. Sound familiar? That’s because it is. George Clooney (Director, Producer, Star) takes what has worked well in films like the space action in GRAVITY, the isolation in THE REVENANT and mask wearing ALA 2020 and swirls it together for an experience where the parts are greater than the whole.
The space scenes soar while the isolation moments leave you longing for a zombie attack to speed things up like in THE LAST OF US 2 video game. The story structure owes a lot to THE LAST OF US 2. Both have two protagonists that are not in the same location learning about a new world and they each have narrative twists. The difference, the video game shockingly has a more consistent tone whereas THE MIDNIGHT SKY gets lost amongst the stars.
This film is better than people are giving it credit for. It’s nowhere near the Oscar buzz it had prerelease…unless you count a Hair and Make-Up award for Clooney’s ridiculous beard.
It is available for blastoff on 23-Dec via Netflix.
