Slingshot

And by another one, I mean yet another arthouse psychological thriller sci-fi. Again. What ever happened to the good old Sci-fi action survival thriller where nobody is "wrestling with the ghosts of their past", struggling with their sanity, or wondering what is real or not...blah blah. Seems like the vast majority of Sci-fi is that BS, not anything really interesting or entertaining anymore. Some of them had the potential to become great movies, but were ruined by the writing and the direction... and the plot, and the story...etc.

Please.... for the love of GOD, can someone make Sci-fi great again??

Set on board the Odyssey-1 spacecraft, crew John (Casey Affleck), Nash (Tomer Capone), and Captain Franks (Laurence Fishburne) are 9 months into a journey to Saturn's moon of Titan where they will use Jupiter's gravity for a slingshot maneuver. As the months wear on and John and the rest of the crew experience mental and physical exhaustion from the hypersleep cycles tensions continue to build upon the crew as John experiences hallucinations of his ex-girlfriend Zoe (Emily beecham).

Slingshot is a psychological sci-fi thriller directed by Mikael Hafstrom and written by R. Scott Adams and Nathan Parker. Hafstrom had apparently acquired the script for quite some time and was interested in its confined nature and compared it in spirit to 1408 which like Slingshot was also a confined chamber piece but with Slingshot more science-fiction as opposed to 1408's Supernatural thriller. Slingshot is certainly a very handsome and well-acted production, but unfortunately it's also very familiar and goes in a direction that's overly familiar for this kind of story.

In terms of the cast, I felt like Casey Affleck, laurence Fishburne, and Tomer Capone do quite well in their roles as the three crewman who go from a cordial and professional working relationship to a greater buildup of tension, unease, and distrust as the events move forward. Structurally speaking Hafstrom uses flashbacks to flesh out Casey Affleck's character in much the same way he did John Cusack's character in 1408, but where that film used it to effectively analyze that character's unprocessed grief and survivor's guilt, Slingshot uses it to build-up a not very interesting love story where Emily Beecham and Casey Affleck's relationship just isn't that interesting or worth emotional investment. As a chamber piece the movie does give our actors a good chance to create engaging portraits of men eroding under pressure and isolation, but unfortunately the payoff to the journey isn't all that satisfying and it really only served to remind me of how much better this kind of premise was done in something like Alexandre Aja's Oxygen.

If you're a die-hard sci-fi fan there is good stuff to appreciate here especially as it relates to the acting and production design, but the uninvolved love story and underwhelming payoff make it difficult to recommend outside of genre die hards/faithful whose enjoyment of this movie will still be marked with an asterisk.

There's a moment right at the end that would have elevated this film to something really worth recommending. Some movies greatly benefit from a conclusion open to interpretation. This is one of them. It gave me the same feeling I had all those years ago watching Total Recall. But they didn't do that here. The final scene is very clear and I think that was a poor choice. Unless the focus is commentary on human behavior, in which case it makes sense. Still, the alternative would have been spectacular.

How cool is Laurence Fishburne? He's been one of my favorite actors since Event Horizon + The Matrix, and in each project following that he never misses. Role of the captain he plays is pretty much perfect. Even when the twists, turns and second-guessing begins, it still fits whatever outcome you may have in mind. That kind of presence and versatility is pure talent, and I never get tired of seeing it. Everybody else does a great job in their respective roles, but Morpheus steals the show.

They likely could have removed 15 minutes and the film would have been better for it. You can definitely feel some drag. While this doesn't outright ruin anything, I probably would have rated it higher otherwise.

I saw Slingshot early as part of AMC's Screen Unseen. As a self-proclaimed sci-fi junkie, I approved of the selection. Knowing zero about the movie beforehand made the experience even better. Everything was set up for success.

Yet success was not achieved. And it's pretty clear why. There isn't nearly enough substance for a full length movie. Very little happens, making the viewing experience fairly boring. I watched the trailer afterwards and it's more exciting than anything in the movie.

The best part is the cast with good performances all around. And there are some interesting story elements that come into play late. But by that point I was mostly checked out.

If you feel underwhelmed like I did, try Sunshine (2007) for a significantly better experience. More exciting and a cast that dwarfs that of Slingshot.

(1 viewing, early screening AMC Screen Unseen 8/26/2024)

Mindgames and science fiction have traditionally gone together well. This one played a lot of mind games and it was done on a lower budget, I expect.

Pure psychological science-fiction with several twists at the end. It was one of those films that you really didn't know where it was going until it got there. I liked how it flipped back and forth between the past and the current deep space expedition. It helped put things in context.

Affleck and Fishbourne played their roles to the tee. At a certain point it felt redundant but I guess it was not unexpected given the outcome.

In a year or so it will probably get relegated to endless repeats on one of the streaming film channels.