Image courtesy of IMDb
Hello, everyone.
For this review, we look at our first sci-fi movie of the year*. This interested me because of two things: The plot and the cast.
Now, I’ve seen movies with scenes set in this location, but it’s a very rare occasion where it’s set there for the whole movie. The last time I saw this happen in a movie was 2017 with the sci-fi horror film Life (with Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, and Ryan Reynolds, among others) and before that it played a significant part in 2013’s Gravity.
Now, we’re going there again, as I review I.S.S., and where I stand on this one… let’s just say this is going to be interesting, especially given the response (particularly from audiences) that I’ve seen so far.
The story follows a team of astronauts and cosmonauts that are living on the International Space Station.
Unfortunately, after receiving word that global chaos has broken out, they now have one simple order: Protect the station however they can so what’s happening on the ground stays on the ground.
What Worked: The cast is really good. Our main character, Dr. Kira Foster, is played by Ariana DeBose (who was just in Wish, and will next be in Matthew Vaughn’s latest film Argylle), and though everyone else plays off of each other very well, she gave the best performance in the movie for me.
Plus, her character is the most consistent at making smarter decisions, and throughout the movie, she’s the most compelling because of that.
Chris Messina (The Boogeyman, Birds of Prey) plays Gordon Barrett, the Commander of the team, and though he’s not in it much, I thought performance-wise, he was just as good.
The same can overall be said for John Gallagher Jr. (10 Cloverfield Lane, Underwater) as the other American astronaut, Christian Campbell. There are times where you don’t like him, but you understand why.
Then we have the Russian cosmonauts, one of whom was my second favorite character in the movie.
Their side of the team is led by Weronika Vetrov, who is basically their counterpart of Kira. She makes mostly smart decisions, and there is a particular aspect to her part in the story that I won’t go into here. Even so, Masha Mashkova (who made her American debut in For All Mankind) does a great job conveying both those aspects.
Though I really liked her, my second favorite performance in the movie was actually Pilou Asbæk (who was just in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, and can also be seen in Overlord and Ghost in the Shell (the latter of which he was the best part of)).
He plays Alexey Pulov, who is the most sensible of their side of the mission, especially compared to his brother Nicholai, played by Costa Ronin (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood).
Before I go on, I should also say that how I just described Nicholai was the best way I could without giving too much away.
For the technical aspects, we have Gabriela Cowperthwaite (best known for the documentary Blackfish) directing and Nick Remy Matthews (best known for Hotel Mumbai) as cinematographer. They give us a gorgeous looking movie here.
The production value is one of the strongest parts.
I also loved how it was set aboard the titular location throughout the whole movie. For me, it’s very rare for it to have such prominence in a movie, even if it’s merely for a large portion of it. The music reflects the sense of paranoia and isolation of being in such a contained area very well.
What Didn’t Work: My main issue is with the pacing. To put this into perspective for you, this movie is 95 minutes (including 6 minutes of credits, so really 89 minutes).
The first act is very strong, it sets everything up very nicely. The second act is fine, but it feels a bit off. However, when the third act hits, it feels so rushed, and you can really tell.
If this had another half hour or so, it would’ve flowed more smoothly in order to more properly develop the narrative and the characters.
In other words, it wasn’t too long, and yet it wasn’t long enough at the same time.
Overall: I really enjoyed I.S.S. despite its issues, so this ended up being another January surprise for me. With good to great performances and excellent production value, it’s an effective thriller that doesn’t overstay its welcome with what time was given to tell the story (even if it wasn’t enough).
Ultimately, after seeing it, I find it pretty underrated. While I wouldn’t put it on the level of something like, say, Underwater, I still think it deserves a bit more credit because of what it does succeed at, much like how I felt that movie did and still does.
Since it’s pretty much on its way out of theaters now, I’d say when it hits streaming, feel free to check it out. If nothing else, see it for the look of the movie and the cast.
Next time, we go back to Earth… only a conflict has already happened, with the President caught in the crossfire, but thankfully, we also have Kurt Russell being a badass.
*This is the first case of an occasion I’ve been meaning to talk about in a review. Despite the fact that the pages for it on sources like Wikipedia and IMDb say this is a 2023 movie, even though general audiences ultimately get it in 2024, this’ll more than likely lead to some confusion for anyone reading this, so I wanted to clear this up for you.
If this isn’t a rule I’ve previously established, I’m establishing it now. If a movie premieres at a festival one year (the reason why it says 2023 is because of that; this premiered at Tribeca in June of 2023), but gets a wide release at least one year later (as is the case here, having been released in January of 2024), then the year of its wide release is how I will count it. Now, if it premieres at a festival and gets a wide release the same year, then I will count it as having come out during that year.
There is at least one exception to that, but when a more fitting subject comes, I’ll mention it there.