Feb 9

Feb 9 Sung-hee Jo's "SPACE SWEEPERS"

Robots, Space Travel, Science Fiction, Korean, Action, Comedy, Netflix

Some IMDB reviewers have already made a big deal about this movie being Korean, its having a relatively small budget, and its ability to demonstrate some of the same big screen production values as “Hollywood” productions costing 10 times as much.

But what about the movie itself? Sure, it looks great, but is it any good?

I enjoyed it but it’s not perfect despite all its goofy charm. And it does have a lot of goofy charm primarily because of a very strong cast of leading and sympathetic characters.

But there are several things that drag the movie down.

The first is the unoriginal story. It's amalgamation of some pretty familiar sci-fi themes including:

A dying earth populated by an underclass, few of whom can afford a “olden ticket” to a better life on Mars ;
An evil genius masterminding efforts to destroy and leave behind the dying earth and its population; and,
A lovable ragtag group of down and out heroes — the “space sweepers” — that have the temerity and guts to challenge the evil Powers that Be.

We've seen all of these story elements before. It's difficult to get too worked up over the all too familiar plot.

The second difficulty is the editing of the action scenes especially those that occur in outer space. Notwithstanding the kookie physics and spaceship-sound-in-vacuum, it's often impossible to tell what is happening and who we're supposed to be rooting for things flash by so fast. This is partly the fault of an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach to animating onscreen CGI elements as well as frenetic editing that frequently makes it impossible to figure out who's trying to do what to whom.

Despite these faults, though, there is much to like. The main characters are attractive, the fundamental “kidnap & ransom” theme is nicely centered on a terrific little girl who is as cute as a button, and the dystopian and shabby appearance of the orbital environment in which the space trash collectors struggle is quite well done.

The bottom line for me is that the positives do outweigh the negatives. I would have liked to see more coherent editing and fewer secondary characters as well as a more original story, but it's a fun ride and is well worth your time if you like fast moving albeit silly outer space adventures.