Space Sweepers Review

The latest game news from IGN - one of my fave channels ever - check it out Space Sweepers is now streaming on Netflix. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Arriving right around one year after Parasite won top honors at the Academy Awards, director Jo Sung-hee’s Space Sweepers is a breakthrough of another kind for Korean cinema: Its very first space epic. Hitting Netflix after a series of pandemic-induced delays, Jo’s film is possessed of impressive scope and a clear vision of its in-universe dynamics. Even as it’s a concoction of various familiar sci-fi tropes, they’ve been reassembled with verve and passion enough to sand down any cynicism when taking it all in. Set in a 2092 wherein continued pollution has rendered the Earth virtually uninhabitable, (right down to hazy orange skies that look unsettlingly similar to the ones that afflicted the San Francisco Bay Area last year). Given the planet’s ill-health, wealthy elites have taken to an orbital utopia built by the UTS corporation offering paradise to a select few while the remaining citizens struggle to make do with whatever scraps remain. The “Space Sweepers” of the title are the crew of the good ship Victory, who make their way by collecting various pieces of flotsam and jetsam floating through the spaceways and selling them. Of course, salvage in space isn’t as simple as casting a net and seeing what floats in, as pieces of space stations and other debris are pirouetting around the planet at lethal speeds if intercepted improperly, making its collection both incredibly profitable and rife with competition. This process is demonstrated in the film’s opening moments with a breathtaking sequence of deep space derring-do that belies the relatively slight budget. In the lead role, Song Joong-ki plays Tae-ho, a former UTS employee-turned-crewmember of the Victory driven to keep working by a tragedy in his past. In addition, the ship is peopled by devil-may-care Captain Jang (Kim Tae-ri), a tough guy with a heart of gold called Tiger Park (Jin Seon-kyu), and the ship’s requisite anthropomorphic robot Bubs (Yoo Hae-jin). [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/01/29/new-to-netflix-for-february-2021"] While scrounging for space scraps is hardly the life they’d want, it’s how they make their way. But when the crew comes across Dorothy (Park Ye-rin), a little girl who the the news broadcasts inform them is actually a robot capable of inflicting world-destroying damage, they find themselves suddenly thrust into the political currents engulfing the planet and on a collision course towards James Sullivan (Richard Armitage), the seemingly benevolent founder of the UTS corporation (who may not in fact be so benevolent). The litany of influences, both tonal and stylistic, that comprise the superstructure of Space Sweepers are plain to see. Elements from Blade Runner to Cowboy Bebop and TV’s Firefly to Neil Blomkamp’s Elysium have all been tossed in a blender, and while what we end up with isn’t particularly original in appearance or execution, that doesn’t make Space Sweepers any less of an engaging escape. Yes, it’s pretty close to empty calories, but it’s not like empty calories necessarily have to be a bad thing. Jo (who also wrote the screenplay) imbues the proceedings with a visual panache that keeps things moving along, and while the 136-minute runtime is probably about twenty minutes longer than it needed to be, there’s enough effort put into developing the main characters and their connections with one another that it manages to keep us on the line as things cycle down to the third act pyrotechnics. If there is a weak spot, it’s that they get so wrapped up in those aforementioned third act pyrotechnics that the actual resolution of the story becomes a bit hard to follow. It’s as if the various CGI technicians are taking a victory lap to show off the space-scapes they’ve created. It’s a remarkable feat, yes, but less tends to be more. Still, as mentioned earlier it’s really the characters who keep us engaged. Song is a sympathetic and intriguing hero, with his tragic backstory providing the story’s throughline and culminating in a manner that’s satisfying while also making the journey worthwhile. Park is also a treat as the little girl who is even more important than she realizes. We buy the relationship she forges with the Victory crew, and she actually delivers a performance that avoids becoming cloying and sugary, as can happen too easily with many child actors. [ignvideo url="the-best-sci-fi-movies-on-netflix"]

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