The Midnight Sky
Been thinking a lot of time and how it gets used and why.
Sanchez
Summary:
The Earth has hit its breaking point, and catastrophic disaster is about to occur. As a result, everyone has to be evacuated to the only livable area in the galaxy, one of Jupiter’s moons. Augustine, who is terminally sick, decides his services would be better used staying on Earth. He positions himself for the end. After days of pointless existence, Augustine decides to try and reach out to the galaxy via his radio to see if he can be of assistance.
Characters:
Augustine Lofthouse is a brilliant scientist who discovers a planet called K-23 when he is younger that has the potential to be habitable by humans. Flash forward to 2049 we see Augustine as a much older man and the world is ending with most humans leaving earth but Augustine stays. Augustine is a loner, he is quiet, and he’s a pretty big drinker but that is partly because he is dying. Sully is one of the crew members of the spacecraft Aether that is currently returning to Earth from K-23 after a two-year mission to see if humans could live there. Sully runs the communication part of the ship and we learn that she is an optimist, kind, clever and we also learn she is pregnant.
Nathanyal: 9.5/10
Oh boy. What an amazing movie. Now, before this review starts, I’d like to mention that this movie is dystopian and has a very bleak outcome for the human race. But because of this tone and atmosphere, this movie delivers a strong story between the destroyed Earth and the Aether Mission.
Now, before I start explaining the beauty of this movie, the movie does have a pretty slow start and it’s hard to get invested in the story. Besides a slow start, the beginning is also a bit confusing, however, everything resolves itself by the end of the movie.
With that aside, let’s get into the positives.
The first great thing about this movie is the dystopian atmosphere and the bleakness of life. At the beginning of the movie, we meet Augustine, a man who wishes to stay behind on the desolate planet to help anyone in need. While the rest of the human population evacuate the planet, Augustine lives within one of the last surviving bases on the Earth’s surface. For three weeks, Augustine is barely living, just going through the motions until he gets a notice that there is still one active mission, Aether. From there, he gets motivation to live and help this group.
After meeting the Aether crew, the next strength of the movie is displayed. The characters and their backstories are one of the strongest I have seen in any movie. The crew on Aether feels like a real family, and they interact with each other so well. Everything feels natural and flows nicely. Everything that happens to the crew displays their perfect chemistry together as a team. It also gives so much weight to all their actions throughout the movie. Their backstories also flesh out their personalities and create round characters, all with motivations and goals.
The final thing that enhances the realism of this movie is all the events in space. The way the characters float and survive in space, and how they move in space in realistic and adds to the overall realism and atmosphere of the movie.
Overall, this is a movie I would heavily recommend. Getting past the slow beginning creates the framework for all the events that happen afterwards. From there, it is a rollercoaster of emotions.
Austin: 9.0/10
The Midnight Sky displays a dystopian future that doesn’t seem so dystopian. The characters are well written, and they are super relatable. The plot follows an unexpected path, with some twists and turns that I would have never thought out. I will warn you that the beginning is pretty slow, and that pace continues until about the hour mark. It isn’t anything that would put me to sleep or cause me to turn it off, but it takes a while for this movie to find its foothold.
After that lull at the beginning, we really dive deep into the entertaining part of the movie. I love the dystopian genre as a whole, so this movie definitely touched that nerve for me. The emotional and sudden scenes we are treated to in the second half were more than enough to make up for the slow start in this one.
George Clooney is fantastic once again, cast as Augustine. The role is played perfectly, and the cast around him adds to that end of the world feel. One of the biggest things that makes this movie great is the visuals. The visual angles, as well as computer-generated scenes, are amazing. From an up-close and personal view of Jupiter to countless views of the spaceship, it is beyond incredible. I was blown away by the quality of many of the landscapes this movie has. I felt that this accuracy made the story feel that much more possible/ real. It really does feel like something that could occur in the coming future, and as concerning as that can be, I really enjoyed it.
This is one of the best movies we have seen on Netflix, and they’ve done a great job in December especially. In a season of Christmas movies and cookies, they’ve managed to slide a great dystopian into the mix.
Sebastian: 7.9/10
I should like this movie, I mean on paper this film has many elements I enjoy such as the future, the world ending, space, and the story of a man and child on a journey but for some reason, this film did not grab me. To start with the good, the best part of the film is the acting. George Clooney and Felicity Jones play our two leads and they do a wonderful job both very different characters that can capture the audience’s interest. George Clooney in particular shines as he spends most of the movie silent so it is his facial expressions that show his emotion and he is brilliant in most scenes. The supporting cast is also wonderful with characters like Adewole ( played by David Oyelowo) and Mitchell ( played by Kyle Chandler) and the rest of the cast just really added to this film and its emotions. There are also some superb scenes in the film with one taking place in space and the other being the final reveal which was wonderful to watch. My problems with the film, for the most part, stem from the fact that I predicted 2 out of the 3 reveals in the film pretty early on which made the reveals, not as fun and I found the story to be predictable overall with the majority of the plot playing out how I imagined. The second problem with this film though it won’t be a problem for all is the movie is really slow-paced with the front half being especially long and drawn out and it is more so an introspective film which some people don’t enjoy.
All in all, this is an okay movie with some great performances that I would recommend to anyone looking for a more character-based film but I would caution you not to overthink the film for the chance that you might spoil it for yourself.
