This South Korean sci-fi epic — the country’s first “space blockbuster,” and an import for Netflix — is absolutely dog-nuts.
It’s also a lot of fun.
 |
| Tae-ho (Song Joong-Ki, left), Jang (Kim Tae-ri, right) and the robot Bubs find something extremely unusual in their latest haul of space salvage. |
The year is 2092. Earth has become an environmental nightmare, with fading sunlight and increasingly acidic soil contributing to the spread of deserts, and the destruction of forests. Thanks to a technological “miracle” orchestrated by the UTS Corp., the wealthy and “connected” enjoy luxurious living in a massive, verdant and enclosed habitat orbiting Earth, reachable via a geosynchronous “space elevator” (long one of my favorite sci-fi concepts, and one that actually might be practical on lower-gravity worlds such as Mars and our Moon).
The rest of humanity is stuck on the planet’s poisonous surface.
Ah, but all is not lost. UTS head James Sullivan (Richard Armitage) — doctor, physicist, aerospace engineer, historian and the world’s richest and oldest man (at a spry 152) — has ambitious plans to terraform Mars, transforming it into the forested paradise that Earth used to be.
Meanwhile…
Thanks to more than a century of orbital development, the region above Earth has become its own nightmare, as satellites fail and other floating debris turns hazardous. This has created a new business model for rag-tag independents, who earn a meager living as orbital garbage collectors: “catching” and then salvaging space junk.
It’s a ruthlessly competitive, wholly unregulated industry, and the champs staff a nuts-and-bolts spaceship dubbed Victory. Its four-person crew comprises genius pilot Tae-ho (Song Joong-Ki); the somewhat mysterious, ex-space pirate Capt. Jang (Kim Tae-ri); resourceful and heavily tattooed engineer Tiger Park (Jim Sun-kyu); and a reprogrammed military robot named Bubs (Yoo Hai-jin).
The latter is impressively adept with a cable-fed harpoon, which — being a robot — it can hurl while standing atop the Victory’s exterior.
Our heroes are a quarrelsome bunch, forever bickering while partying hard during their down time. Each also has a back-story, although we learn the most about Bubs and Tae-ho.
The gangly, wholly mechanical robot has long hoarded cash — much of which it wins while outplaying the others at poker — in the hopes of one day accumulating enough to purchase a humanoid exterior, thereby “passing” successfully.
Tae-ho, once a UTS “peacekeeper” — think nasty Star Wars storm troopers — quit when he no longer could stand the corporation’s cruelty to helpless civilians. That noble act ruined his life, leaving him unable to properly care for his adopted young daughter. Worse yet, a subsequent accident separated them; he has sought her ever since, hoping to raise the exorbitant sum demanded by a UTS “lost person” company that employs DNA and nanobots for such searches.
On this average day, after Victory beats competitors during a debris chase — an exhilarating sequence orchestrated by editors Mira Ha and Na-young Nam, and the film’s massive sfx team — they discover they’ve retrieved a mostly intact space shuttle.
And within it … a 7-year-old girl. Named Dorothy. Or Kang Kot-nim, depending on who’s talking. Either way, she’s played by the utterly adorable Ye-Rin Park.
Ah, but is she actually a little girl? She matches the description circulated by Sullivan and UTS, of a ticking hydrogen bomb disguised as a human-like robot. Figuring that this is the perfect means to raise the money they all need, our impulsive heroes demand a sizeable ransom for the “device’s” return.
Needless to say, attempting to extort UTS isn’t a smart — or safe — career move.
Once we get beyond all of the first act’s necessary exposition, Jo’s film becomes quite a ride. The effects razzmatazz is terrific, whether we’re dealing with space battles and pursuits, or Bubs’ mere presence (given that there’s no way it’s ever a person in some sort of costume).
And even if Dorothy is a bomb, she’s cute, personable and irresistible. Both Tae-ho and Tiger Park become paternal, protective and increasingly unwilling to turn her over to UTS. (Ultimately, the question of the little girl’s humanity — or lack thereof — is solved in droll fashion.)
Jin is a hoot as the gruff, growly Tiger Park, forever laboring below decks, in an effort to keep Victory in — more or less — working order. (We practically expect him to respond to Jang’s frequent entreaties by snarling, “Captain, the engines cannae take it any more!”)
The eternally snarky Bubs gets the best one-liners, many of which are delivered as asides that you’d likely not hear without the subtitles. Tae-ri’s Jang is feisty, reckless and quick to anger; Joong-Ki’s frequently glum Tae-ho is A Tortured Soul. Yes, these characters are thinly sketched and clichéd, but the actors work well as a group.
Sullivan — no surprise — proves far less benevolent than his public persona appears; Armitage is quite adept at switching from soothing to sinister, in the blink of an eye. We begin to wonder whether any of Earth’s surface inhabitants will be invited, once Mars becomes terraformed.
Despite its South Korean origins, this film is an international affair. The (presumably) American Sullivan speaks English, and the various other space sweepers are piloted by crews conversing — and cursing — in French, Russian and quite a few other languages. (As an amusing sidebar, whoever handled the closed captions confuses German with English.)
And while the captions are absolutely essential — don’t opt for the dubbed English version, which is awful — they’re also a mild liability. The South Korean actors speak very rapidly, so there’s a lot to read; that’s quite distracting, particularly during the first act’s information dump. It’s also difficult to appreciate the way-cool special effects, while scrambling to keep up with the captions.
Fortunately, that becomes less of a problem after the initial half hour or so, once we settle into the story’s rhythm.
Everything will seem much more coherent during a second viewing, and given this film’s entertainment value as a giddy, goofy roller coaster ride, I’m sure a lot of viewers will do just that.
No comments:
Post a Comment