3
Zogitt
Australia
Space cowboy meets Vincenzo meets WALL-E
It must be really hard for writer-nim to come up with new ideas for a space movie that has mass appeal and yet be as original as possible. In the case of Space Sweepers, they got 1 out of 2 right.
As an adventure movie, it is a blast (figuratively as well as literally). The 2 hours run time flashed by with little drag. Action was the centrepiece of the show and it runs the gauntlet of thrilling space flights, hand-to-hand combat, full scale space battle and zero gravity gun fights. In between, there were rare moments of the crew taking a breather and giving the found family trope a decent airing. It is a bit of a shame that most of what I have described are derivatives of a number of movies that came before. Classics like Star Wars, Blade Runner, WALL-E and others all casted a shadow on this film.
That is not necessary a bad thing. Many successful films have stood on those mighty shoulders. In this case, the script was good enough to allow it to be seen as paying homage rather than outright plagiarism. It was not quite original though but it got the job done.
Being a Korean production, the Korean leads all delivered strong performances. Even the child actor and the CG android have strong personalities. However, the same can't be said for the international casts. The evil antagonist was the strongest showing of that bunch but minor roles can be a real mixed bag. The least said, the better. ;)
The budget for this movie is over US$20millions (cheap by Hollywood standards). The CGI was really well done, the cyber punk inspired settings were expansive with grimy and edgy interior designs. Space structures are impressively huge and intricate. It is rated M but there is little blood nor graphical violence shown. Dead bodies were surprisingly "clean" even after being shot multiple times by an assault rifle.
As to be expected with this type of sci-fi drama, there are inconsistencies with future techs and pseudo sciences. One particular issue I have has to do with the "indestructible" nanobots floating in space. They are used as a kind of deus ex machina but that also contradicted with an overarching plotline so who is correct? There are other causal effects and subplots that were presented to us as fait accompli so it is pretty much 'ask no questions and you will hear no lies'. :)
Finally, the ending was actually not my favourite. I would have preferred the grittier ending as the story suggested but they must have done some market research and decided to go with a fan service version. They rammed it through but you really have to suspend your disbelieve.
OST is generic techno, heroic, eerie tracks which paired well with the scenes but ultimately forgettable.
Finally, please watch this in the original Korean/multilingual soundtrack. The English dub wasn't bad but it is not the same.
As an adventure movie, it is a blast (figuratively as well as literally). The 2 hours run time flashed by with little drag. Action was the centrepiece of the show and it runs the gauntlet of thrilling space flights, hand-to-hand combat, full scale space battle and zero gravity gun fights. In between, there were rare moments of the crew taking a breather and giving the found family trope a decent airing. It is a bit of a shame that most of what I have described are derivatives of a number of movies that came before. Classics like Star Wars, Blade Runner, WALL-E and others all casted a shadow on this film.
That is not necessary a bad thing. Many successful films have stood on those mighty shoulders. In this case, the script was good enough to allow it to be seen as paying homage rather than outright plagiarism. It was not quite original though but it got the job done.
Being a Korean production, the Korean leads all delivered strong performances. Even the child actor and the CG android have strong personalities. However, the same can't be said for the international casts. The evil antagonist was the strongest showing of that bunch but minor roles can be a real mixed bag. The least said, the better. ;)
The budget for this movie is over US$20millions (cheap by Hollywood standards). The CGI was really well done, the cyber punk inspired settings were expansive with grimy and edgy interior designs. Space structures are impressively huge and intricate. It is rated M but there is little blood nor graphical violence shown. Dead bodies were surprisingly "clean" even after being shot multiple times by an assault rifle.
As to be expected with this type of sci-fi drama, there are inconsistencies with future techs and pseudo sciences. One particular issue I have has to do with the "indestructible" nanobots floating in space. They are used as a kind of deus ex machina but that also contradicted with an overarching plotline so who is correct? There are other causal effects and subplots that were presented to us as fait accompli so it is pretty much 'ask no questions and you will hear no lies'. :)
Finally, the ending was actually not my favourite. I would have preferred the grittier ending as the story suggested but they must have done some market research and decided to go with a fan service version. They rammed it through but you really have to suspend your disbelieve.
OST is generic techno, heroic, eerie tracks which paired well with the scenes but ultimately forgettable.
Finally, please watch this in the original Korean/multilingual soundtrack. The English dub wasn't bad but it is not the same.
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